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Some businesses are built around this technique aren't they.. get some incredibly broad patent and wait for another company to infringe. Microsoft recently had to stop selling MS Office because of some XML format patent - something even less tanglible than a hardware device. The company that sued them got some kind of massive payout I believe.
The nook looks about 5 times better than that other device though, that's for sure!
In the case of hardware the company has to demonstrate they have made the device and intend to sell it I believe. It's strange though, a lot of these patents aren't acknowledged in court, for example Apple has patented every incarnation of 'multitouch' - using multiple fingers to control touch screen devices, but Microsoft and other companies like Palm are still making multitouch devices and software, no huge legal battle eventuated.
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