Way back in December 2013 Patently Mobile (then known as Patent Bolt) posted a major Samsung patent report titled "Samsung Invents Dual Display Smartphones Reflecting New User Interfaces and Modes of Operation." Late last month the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Samsung this patent.  You could review our original report for many more patent figures and details here.

Should Samsung decide to challenge Microsoft's Q4 2020 Surface Duo smartphone, as presented below, they're legally covered to do so using their own patented technology.    

Below are three of Samsung's patent figures. In one example, Samsung's patent FIG. 17C illustrates a portable device displaying a clipboard (#710) in a predetermined area of the first and/or second touch screen which is a right part of the second touch screen in response to the folding back command.

Samsung was recently granted patent 10,459,625 covering their dual display smartphone. There are over 100 patent figures presented in this patent.

Coincidentally Microsoft was also granted a patent for their dual display device under 10,451,911 late last month as shown below in FIG. 2 which resembles their future Surface Duo smartphone.

In the example dual-display device illustrated in FIG. 2 above, Microsoft notes that "the sensor devices include a forward-facing camera and a speaker. In some examples, the mobile computing device may take the form of a smartphone device. In another example, the mobile computing device may take other suitable forms, such as a tablet computing device having side-by-side displays."

Technically the patent covers both Microsoft's Q4 2020 Surface Duo phone and the Surface Neo, a dual display Surface tablet.