Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon has been granted what appears to be a fairly broad patent for an e-book reader with a secondary LCD display. The patent was filed for the early version of the Kindle, which featured an LCD scroller on the side.

But if you follow the e-book reader market at all, odds are that an entirely different reader has already sprung to mind: The Nook. Barnes and Noble’s reader is a dual-screen device, featuring a large e-book display and a smaller LCD one. Here is the language fom the original patent application, courtesy of Engadget,

A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.

So, is Amazon entrenched in the e-reader battle enough to sue? No one but the company can say for sure, though things have certainly been heating up in the space as of late, thanks in no small part to the three-way price wars being waged between Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.