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Microsoft Patenting Sparklines?

This kind of boggles the mind. One of the new features in Excel 2010 is sparklines -- small in-cell charts that are often presented in groups.

The concept was invented and named by Edward Tufte. However, Microsoft is seeking a patent: Sparklines in the Grid.

A sparkline is associated with a location in a document to provide a visual representation of one or more data values included in the document. The sparkline is associated with a data source within the document including the one or more data values. The sparkline is generated by generating the visual representation based on the one or more data values with a matrix of points to be presented at the associated location in the document. The sparkline is presented at the associated location in the document. The sparkline is configured to be regenerated when one or more of the data values in the data source change.

In July, one the Microsoft patent authors (San Radakovitz) wrote this on a Microsoft blog: Sparklines in Excel:

For Excel 2010 we've implemented sparklines, "intense, simple, word-sized graphics", as their inventor Edward Tufte describes them in his book Beautiful Evidence.

At his Web site, Edward Tufte asks:

What should I do?

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By Jon Peltier. Comment posted 19 November, 2009 5:48pm

   This patent is just another illustration of how illogical and dysfunctional the US Patent Office has become. The examiners are overburdened with work, and not sufficiently knowledgeable in the technologies they are passing judgment on.
   
   Microsoft isn't patenting sparklines per se, they are patenting sparklines which fit into a grid, i.e., an Excel cell. Never mind that Bissantz and BonaVista and Fabrice of Sparklines-for-Excel have had available for years.
2. By John Walkenbach. Comment posted 19 November, 2009 7:31pm

   In other words, they're trying to keep Google from using this in their spreadsheet.
3. By Doug jenkins. Comment posted 19 November, 2009 10:45pm

   So Microsoft is going to be Lotus and Google is going to be Borland in the re-make of the classic "Look-and-Feel" saga?
   
   I wonder who is going to be Microsoft.
4. By sam. Comment posted 20 November, 2009 1:17am

   Wonder what would have happed in XEROX would have patented Menus....
5. By Mike Woodhouse. Comment posted 20 November, 2009 3:42am

   I think MS have a (slim) case for saying that their technology is sufficiently different in execution from Bissantz/Bonavista et al, on the grounds that they can implement the technology as an integrated part of the Excel executable, rather than by building a teeny-tiny chart or utilising a custom font, both of which ought to qualify for patents of their own, were the authors bored enough to be bothered.
   
   So I definitely agree that it's an anti-Google/Zoho/OpenOffice/QuattroPro/Visicalc/whatever move, rather than something intended to upset or annoy people who constitute a real Excel value-add.
   
   I think Tufte is a little disingenuous, here - AFAIK he's not the original source of the concept, although he deserves great credit for having spread the word.
6. By Mike Alexander. Comment posted 20 November, 2009 9:49am

   I agree with John. I think MS is actually patenting the technology used to get the sparklines into the grid. It's not the same as Bissantz and BonaVista. They use fonts and pictures.
   
   Microsoft's version is arguably superior.
   
   This is a move to protect from google and OpenOffice.