Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Applies For Patent On Tufte's Sparklines

Posted by timothy on from the audacity-of-patents dept.

jenkin sear writes "Data visualization guru Edward Tufte developed Sparklines, a great way to display condensed data as an inline graphic. Excel's new version has incorporated the design element — and Microsoft has applied for a patent on them — without so much as a by-your-leave from Tufte."

1 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Do you know who Tufte is? by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Obviously not. If you did you would know he always credits his sources in depth and explains the historical development of his thinking. He often draws out features of graphical presentation of data and gives them simplifying names to provide a framework, but he does not claim originality.

    He is not suing Microsoft, and has done absolutely nothing wrong, And your post is a simple troll.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."