B&N Nook Sales Injuction Denied But Court Recognizes "Genuine Dispute" Over Design Theft

Barnes and Noble don't seem to need any assistance from Spring Design in holding up their nook ebook reader from hitting the market, but the latter's hope for an official injunction while their allegations of "misappropriated trade secrets" are worked out through the courts has been denied.  While the court documents agree that there is a "genuine dispute" about whether B&N used Spring Design's ideas or came up with the nook themselves, they're not willing to stop the dual-display ebook reader from going on sale while they figure it out.

Spring Design allege that they worked closely with Barnes and Noble in 2009, believing the retailer would use their Alex Android-based ebook reader concept.  As a result, they shared various details of hardware and software, details they claim B&N went on to use in the creation of their own ebook reader, the nook.  We'll have to wait to see how the courts figure this one out, but so far B&N are having trouble getting the nook into readers' hands with merely their own supply chain to contend with.