The Nook is Barnes & Noble’s first eBook ready and it has already impressed us. But it looks like there’s something fishy about the whole thing. Spring Design alleges that the Nook design was stolen from the Alex. Spring Design has shown the Alex dual-screen eBook reader to Barnes & Noble before the Nook has been developed and it looks like the two companies have worked together for a while. We’re not jumping to any conclusions yet as it’s not our place to do that.

Spring Design has filed a trade secret lawsuit against Barnes & Noble and we’re curious to see what happens next. Eric Kmiec, Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing has this to say about the whole issue:

Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights. 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.

What will you choose between the Alex and the Nook?

via businesswire