SAN FRANCISCO - SPRING Design, a maker of electronic readers, is suing Barnes & Noble Inc , claiming that the bookseller's newly launched Nook reader illegally copied its dual-screen design after the two discussed a possible partnership.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in San Jose, California, Spring Design said it had shared the design of its Alex eReader with Barnes & Noble under protection of a nondisclosure agreement, hoping to strike a deal on bringing a device to market.

Barnes & Noble praised Alex's features but did not say it intended to use them until it publicly unveiled its Nook eReader last month, according to Spring Design.

Spring Design said it first filed patents for its Alex reader, which features a dual screen and runs on Google Inc's Android operating system, in 2006. The Nook also runs on Android and aims to compete with Amazon.com's market-leading Kindle.

'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,' said Spring Design's vice president of sales and marketing, Eric Kmiec, in a statement.

Spring 'has been working with major book stores, newspapers, and publishers over the last two years to educate them about the capabilities and advantages of the interactive dual-screen navigation design,' according to the complaint. -- REUTERS