Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US Patent 12140998, I will search the USPTO database for the patent and examine its cited references.

The USPTO website provides a Patent Public Search tool for this purpose.

Please note that the following information is based on the provided patent text, which lists prior art keywords and cross-references to related applications, but does not explicitly list the "most relevant prior art" in a categorized fashion as typically found in an examiner's search report. To get a definitive list of prior art cited by the examiner, a direct search of the USPTO's Patent Public Search database for US12140998B2 would be required. However, based on the provided text, I can identify references from the patent's own description.

The patent US12140998B2, "Flexible display computing devices," filed May 22, 2023, is a continuation of several earlier applications, ultimately claiming priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/372,391, filed on August 10, 2010. These earlier applications are considered part of the patent family and establish priority, but they are not prior art in the sense of anticipating the claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102. Rather, they are a lineage of the present patent.

The patent text itself does not explicitly list "prior art" in a separate section with full citations and descriptions of how each reference anticipates specific claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102. Instead, it discusses the "Background of the Invention" and "Summary of Embodiments of the Invention," which implicitly refer to existing challenges and proposed solutions in the field.

Therefore, without access to the actual "References Cited" section from the USPTO patent document (which is typically found in the full patent PDF or database entry), I cannot provide a definitive list of cited prior art and an analysis of which claims they potentially anticipate.

However, based on the patent's discussion of the "Background of the Invention" and the problems it aims to solve, the general area of prior art would include:

• Handheld computing devices with small-scale touch screens: The patent explicitly mentions "handheld computing devices today" and the "difficulties in using a small scale touch screen device," such as cumbersomeness for physical interaction, imprecise input, and limited viewing capacity for graphic-intensive applications, videos, and text. This indicates prior art exists in mobile phones and similar devices with fixed, small touchscreens.
• Flexible displays and multiple screen displays for transformation: The patent states that "variations on flexible displays and the implementation of multiple screen displays have been proposed to enable the transformation of a display from a compact state to an expanded state." This suggests that prior art exists in the general concept of reconfigurable displays, but these existing solutions are described as having "a number of limitations to how they can be implemented." Specifically, issues with flexible displays having a radius when folded, difficulty in configuring multiple segments into a completely flat compact position, and the need for a reconfigurable structure, alignment locking mechanism, optimized flexible circuit, and folding configuration are highlighted as unmet needs in the prior art.

To provide the specific prior art and claim anticipation analysis you requested, I would need to perform a search on the USPTO Patent Public Search database for US Patent 12140998B2 to retrieve its "References Cited" section.