Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines

Re:Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines by decode on Thursday November 19, 2009 @10:00AM (#950328)

To be fair, they're not claiming sparklines itself, rather the integration of sparklines into a spreadsheet. That still doesn't seem useful and nonobvious to me, and on top of that there seems to be prior art, but don't mischaracterize what they've patented.

The patent itself: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0282325.html

[Update] Having read the claims more closely, it seems the patent might be misnamed. Claims 1-12 and 14-15 make no mention of a spreadsheet at all, only the embedding of sparklines in an electronic document and autogenerating them based on data in the document. Claims 13 and 16-20 are the only ones that cite a spreadsheet.

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Re:Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines by raquo on Thursday November 19, 2009 @10:31AM (#950383)

Not a spreadsheet but any kind of document, if I understand it correctly.

ADDED: So, they applied a patent for embedding "small graphics" in a document. Oh well...

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Re:Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines by m_eiman on Thursday November 19, 2009 @11:50AM (#950536)

So, they applied a patent for embedding "small graphics" in a document.

Small graphics that depend on other data in the document and are updated when that data is changed, to be a bit more precise. Still pretty obvious, of course.

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Re:Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines by iuyhgbn on Thursday November 19, 2009 @06:50PM (#951484)

The US also allows implementation patents so you can take any existing patent and add "using a computer" to the end.

For instance, placing a small dot to mark the end of a sentance - on a computer, is a new patent.

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