Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 12005349, I will use the information available from the patent document itself, specifically the "Prior art date" and the "RELATED APPLICATION(S)" section, which lists a chain of patent applications that this patent claims priority from. These earlier applications and any patents cited within them are prime candidates for prior art under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (novelty).

Based on the provided patent text, the most directly relevant prior art is often found within the documents explicitly cited by the patent examiner or the applicant. The patent text directly references several U.S. Patents in its background and detailed description. These are critical for a prior art analysis.

Here's a breakdown of the cited prior art within the text of US Patent 12005349:

1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,546 to Fascenda, entitled “Game of Skill Playable by Remote Participants in Conjunction with a Live Event.”

   • Full Citation: U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,546 to Fascenda.
   • Publication/Filing Date: The patent text mentions a "Prior art date" of 2005-10-03, but this is the priority date for the current patent family, not for Fascenda '546. The Fascenda patent is described as being expired ("With the expiration of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,546 to Fascenda and Lockton"). While the specific publication/filing date for Fascenda '546 is not explicitly stated in the provided text, its expiration indicates it predates the earliest priority date of US12005349 (October 3, 2005). A quick search (which I cannot perform directly at this step) would confirm its filing/publication date. For the purpose of this analysis, we can infer it is significantly older.
   • Brief Description: This patent describes a "Game of Skill Playable by Remote Participants in Conjunction with a Live Event" and introduces the concept of a "lock out" signal to prohibit entry of predictions after a competitor sees a play begin to unfold. It is incorporated by reference in US12005349.
   • Which claim(s) it potentially anticipates under 35 U.S.C. § 102: The Fascenda '546 patent is explicitly discussed as prior art providing the "lock out" signal concept. This concept is fundamental to many of the claims in US12005349, particularly those involving synchronizing game data and preventing unfair advantages based on delays. For example, independent claims 1, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 all involve methods or systems for equalizing game experience, often by adjusting a "lock out" signal or similar game control data based on latency. The specific language in US12005349, such as "substantially equalizing receipt of lock out events relative to a televised/streamed event triggering a lock out" (as seen in the description of synchronizing in FIG. 6), directly builds upon or distinguishes itself from this prior art. Therefore, Fascenda '546 could potentially anticipate elements related to the core concept of using a lockout signal for fair competition in a game linked to a live event.

2. U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,913 to Berner and Lockton ('913 patent), titled "Central computing system for grouping participants having similar skill levels together in simultaneous, but separate, levels of competition playing an identical game."

   • Full Citation: U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,913 to Berner and Lockton.
   • Publication/Filing Date: The patent text does not specify the exact publication/filing date for '913. Its discussion in the "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION" section of US12005349 indicates it is prior art.
   • Brief Description: This patent provides a central computing system for grouping participants by skill level in simultaneous, but separate, competitions of an identical game. It also details communicating relative performances only to those at the same skill level, storing specific skill levels on a wireless receiving device, and using a telephonic link to update skill levels.
   • Which claim(s) it potentially anticipates under 35 U.S.C. § 102: While the '913 patent describes aspects of distributed gaming and grouping participants, its focus appears to be on skill-level grouping and score management rather than the latency equalization and synchronization with external programming that is central to US12005349. However, elements of "a server for executing a game" (Claims 1, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28) and potentially "receiving input from a plurality of mobile devices" could find some foundational anticipation or motivation in the '913 patent's general framework for multi-participant gaming. The current patent specifically distinguishes itself by addressing the "user discouragement" that could arise from direct comparisons between players of disparate skills, which the '913 patent enables. Therefore, the '913 patent could be relevant to the broader context of distributed gaming but less directly to the specific latency synchronization mechanisms of US12005349.

It's important to note that the term "prior art" also encompasses all publicly available information about inventions existing at the time of the patent application's effective filing date. This includes patents, published applications, journal articles, websites, and even public use or sale. This analysis focuses on the prior art explicitly mentioned and discussed within the text of US12005349. For a comprehensive prior art search, one would typically examine all forward and backward citations, as well as perform keyword and classification-based searches in patent and non-patent literature databases.