Back in May Patently Apple posted a granted patent covering foldable devices. Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a continuation patent on this same invention. All changes in a continuation patent are restricted to patent claims. Apple's recently granted patent presented 20 patent claims. In Apple's update, Apple cancelled the original 20 claims and replaced them with 5 new ones. Being that it's a continuation patent, the five new claims start at #21 as opposed to starting over at #1. The five new patent claims are as follows:

Claim #21: An electronic device comprising: a flexible display layer; and a cover layer coupled to the display layer and configured to be moved between a folded configuration and an unfolded configuration by bending the cover layer along a foldable region of the cover layer, a first portion of the foldable region having a stress state in the unfolded configuration resulting from a combination of: a compressive stress due to ion-exchange of the cover layer; and a tensile stress due to bending of the cover layer to the unfolded configuration.

Claim #22: The electronic device of claim 21, wherein: the folded configuration of the cover layer defines a fold in the foldable region; and the first portion of the foldable region is located at an inside of the fold in the folded configuration.

Claim #23:The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the first portion of the foldable region defines an exterior surface of the cover layer.

Claim #24: The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the compressive stress due to ion-exchange is greater than the tensile stress due to bending of the cover layer to the unfolded configuration

Claim #25: The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the cover layer comprises a glass.

Apple's patent FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrated below respectively illustrate a device in open and closed configurations.

In Apple's patent FIG. 4A above we're able to see device #400 in a fully folded or closed configuration. In the fully folded or closed configuration, roughly two thirds of the display layer #420 is viewable along the first region #481 and second region #482 of the device.

Apple's continuation patent application 20190265756 that was published today by the U.S. Patent Office was originally filed back in May 2019. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

You can compare the five new patent claims with the 20 found in the May 2019 patent here.

Inventors

Dale Memering: Product Design Materials Engineer

Christopher Bartlow: Product Design Engineer. Bartlow came to Apple from Ferrotec where his was a materials scientist.

Christopher D. Jones:  Unfortunately Apple employs 12 that are named Chris or Christopher Jones and we're unable to figure out which should be given credit for being an inventor on this foldable device patent.

While we're on the topic of folding phones and tablets, it should be noted that earlier today we reported that the Samsung Galaxy Fold will finally be ready for market on September 6th

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