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Microsoft Patents The Broken y-Axis

Posted by timothy on from the what-the-heck-it's-only-a-legal-monopoly dept.

theodp writes "Microsoft was granted a patent Tuesday for Displaying data containing outlying data items, covering the familiar concept of broken y-axis bar charts. Oddly, Microsoft's 2002 'invention' is described in detail in a 1999 listserv post and found its way into scientific journals and other sources before the patent's claims were disclosed. BTW, the patent's term was extended by 269 days, apparently the USPTO's way of apologizing for initially rejecting the patent."

2 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just a few notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Forget working around; the claims are broader than just the detailed methods in the description. If you do what is in the claims, you infringe.

    The only 'special' aspect is in the end of claim 1: apparently the invention is to only do this trick if you have more than three data items.

  2. Re:What I meant to say was... by cyborch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Patent the wheel like this guy did?