Microsoft attemps to Patent Tufte’s Sparklines

A new patent application (hasn’t been awarded yet, I believe) from Microsoft bears stark resemblence (in both form and name) to Edward Tufte’s Sparklines.  I don’t think anyone would doubt that Tufte created the popular visualization algorithm, however the inventor list completely excludes him:

Radakovitz, Samuel Chow (Redmond, WA, US) Buerman, Adam Michael (Bellevue, WA, US) Garg, Anupam (Redmond, WA, US) Androski, Matthew John (Bellevue, WA, US) Becker, Matthew Kevin (Kirkland, WA, US) Ruble, Brian S. (Bellevue, WA, US)

Meant to be included in Microsoft Excel as a new charting method, it’s left many wondering what recourse Tufte has (aside from claiming prior art).  Tufte is himself entertaining ideas on his forum.

What do you think?

Sparklines for Excel: United States Patent Application 20090282325.

About the Author: Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Science microsoft, patent, sparklines, tufte