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A comment on Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines. Parent comment

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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