http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
http://www.google.com]]>Nov 3rd 2009 6:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
nOok...]]>Nov 3rd 2009 6:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
One possibility is that B&N had already been developing the nook, and when it saw Spring's device, it decided to go with its own device. I haven't read the agreement, but if its like every other NDA on the planet, I'm sure it has a clause that allows B&N to use any technology it already had possession of before being showed Spring's confidential stuff.

Like everything, there is probably much more to this than it seems from the PR press releases of each company.]]>Nov 4th 2009 11:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Screw you Spring Design.]]>Nov 3rd 2009 6:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Besides, I like the Nook a lot better than what Spring Design's wanted to do.]]>Nov 3rd 2009 9:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 4th 2009 12:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
How do we know that is what's happening here? Isn't it equally likely that B&N didn't like what it say in Spring's reader and decided to go another direction. Just because B&N is the bigger company doesn't mean that it is automatically in the wrong (I mean it's not Apple... I kid, I kid).]]>Nov 4th 2009 11:46AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
Uh huh


Interesting...]]>Nov 3rd 2009 6:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 6:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCRE9qOgbug]]>Nov 3rd 2009 7:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Amazon buys spring design, provides backing for major suit against B&N.

Amazon / spring wins, nook disappears.]]>Nov 3rd 2009 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
Nook launched 8 mos later.

I don't know that I buy that B&N took the ideas from Spring Design, got their design, hardware specs, partnerships, software dev, testing, and manufacturing all wrapped up and ready for launch in 8 mos.

If they did...that's pretty hardcore.]]>Nov 3rd 2009 7:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
--Bill]]>Nov 3rd 2009 7:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 11:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
If you work in tech, you meet potential partners all the time, and an NDA is part of the scenery. Almost every conceivable software and hardware idea has been implemented in slideware or reference designs, and if you're working on v1 products, as the BN Nook team is/was, you'll run into potential partners that have 'independently' conceived product concepts similar to your own, or other members of the ecosystem, on a surprisingly regular basis. There is no practical defense against concepts seeping into the marketplace of ideas, and an NDA is an instrument to try to prevent this leakage.

IMO it's an unavoidable reality that sometimes seriously flawed potential partners will strike first upon decent ideas. If you're working to figure how how to best bring a product to market and you've been exposed to a cool concept from a lame vendor, what's the best course of action? Pursue any approach other than the one the lame vendor suggested?

The more common scenario, and is what I suspect played out with BN and SD is that BN had already mostly settled on a plan for Nook, and met with SD late/after the sourcing part of the product cycle, and realized 'they've got the same idea that we're already working on'. At that point the best approach, or at least the approach that multiple litigation attorneys I've worked with always suggest, is to immediately cease further discussion to avoid taint. If this is what played out, the only mistake one could argue BN made was in evaluating design proposals after a direction was already set. ]]>Nov 3rd 2009 8:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 7:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 4th 2009 8:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
Assuming B&N have sinned then here is not only to Spring Designs prevailing but the public should boycott B&N until justice is done. ]]>Nov 3rd 2009 7:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
That's a pretty BIG assumption. As pointed out in some posts above, it is also likely that B&N was developing the nook before it ever met with Spring, and just decided it didn't like what Spring showed them and would rather use what it had already started with. There is nothing wrong with that.

Spring has a HUGE hill to climb up to win its case. First, it has to prove that the nook has the same tech as what it first showed B&N... Second, it has to prove that B&N didn't already have knowledge of that tech (perhaps from another developer) prior to meeting with Spring... Third, Spring has to prove that B&N actually stole the idea and implemented it instead of developing it separately. I'm guessing it can't do it.]]>Nov 4th 2009 11:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 8:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
Second, you are assuming that B&N breached the contract. That's what the whole lawsuit is about... so you're basically assuming a result that hasn't been proven. It is equally likely that B&N had already been developing the nook when Spring met with them and decided against using Spring's technology for whatever reason. If that's the case, B&N didn't breach anything, no matter how similar the nook is to Spring's tech.]]>Nov 4th 2009 11:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 8:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 9:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 4th 2009 12:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 10:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 3rd 2009 10:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
I'll wait for Sony's next round of eReaders.

I love the NYPL lending.]]>Nov 3rd 2009 11:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
That said, where's SD's request for a preliminary injunction against B&N's release of the nook?]]>Nov 4th 2009 3:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/Nov 4th 2009 11:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/(http://www.r4i-kort.dk/)]]>Nov 4th 2009 5:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
What really matters, even if B&N already had some plans of a similar product design before seeing SD's information, is whether B&N used that information in contravention to the NDA. (and if SD can prove it, perhaps by getting depositions from B&N employees or obtaining emails that might discuss how B&N used this information). That's pretty much it all else being equal.

OTH, if B&N had independently come up with the same information prior to disclosure, then the NDA excludes that information from the scope of protection (or if the information falls under the other exclusions e.g. public knowledge). question is, can that assertion be backed up by evidence to meet the standard of proof.

in reality, some business guys are in such a hurry to exchange information that they probably started talking before the NDA was actually signed...]]>Nov 4th 2009 6:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
I personally would be highly shocked that they stole this idea and had it developed, tested and mass produced to have the nook ready to ship out by the end of this month.

I've worked for startups before, they're biggest goal is to have a quick viable product (which has rarely happened at the places I've worked) or to be bought out by a bigger fish. I want to support the smaller business but I've come to realize that the smaller business is just like the bigger business, the only difference is what they offer and the cash that backs them.]]>Nov 4th 2009 6:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/03/spring-design-vs-barnes-and-noble-all-the-nooks-and-crannies/
http://www.dmaxonline.com]]>Nov 17th 2009 6:09AM