Spring Design has sued Barnes & Noble over the design of their digital reader Nook, arguing that the bookseller broke non-disclosure agreements and "misappropriated trade secrets" about the two-screen design of Spring Design's Alex Reader

According to Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec, the company had shared the device with bookseller: "We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market." Spring Design unveiled the reader on Oct. 19, 2009; a Google Android-based e-book device with wi-fi Internet browsing and a special dual screen allowing reading and browsing at the same time.

Here's more from the company's release: "Spring Design first developed and began filing patents on its Alex e-book, an innovative dual screen, Android-based e-book back in 2006. Since the beginning of 2009 Spring and Barnes & Noble worked within a non-disclosure agreement, including many meetings, emails and conference calls with executives ranging up to the president of Barnes and Noble.com, discussing confidential information regarding the features, functionality and capabilities of Alex."