Dec 29, 2010 11:22 GMT  ·  By

It would appear that the Nook e-reader form Barnes & Noble is cause for more than just joy, but also for, indirectly at least, headaches, metaphorical or otherwise, induced by a lawsuit started by Spring Design.

As some end-users may have noticed, the holiday season somehow acts as a signal for the cropping up of various legal actions.

This includes not just a slew of new accusations, but also appeals or advances in court actions that were started in the past.

The latter type of legal situation is what Barnes & Noble and Spring Design have been embroiled in ever since the latter called the former to court.

Basically, after B&N made its Nook e-reader, Spring Design filed a complaint in which it claims that B&N did several things.

The list of allegations includes unfair competition, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.

To be more accurate, Spring Design and B&N were involved in a period of co-development in 2009, in which the two considered pooling their resources.

Spring Design would have come up with the hardware, while B&N would provide the marketing power and e-book store.

The talks broke down, and B&N soon had the Nook on sale, after which the Alex reached the market in April, 2010.

The Alex is priced at $299 and, for some reason or another, did not become as successful as the Nook, and its maker ended up suing B&N over the aforementioned allegations.

What happened most recently was that Barnes & Noble called for the charges to be dropped, but the judges, or one of them at least, found “significant factual dispute” over whether Nook's design does use ideas shared under the original NDA.

Meanwhile, Spring Design failed to obtain an injunction against sales. Overall, the companies did not comment on the latest ruling, but it is clear that the lawsuit will continue.