Microsoft Patents The Broken y-Axis

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."

Re:First Post - where is everybody?

[erinacht]

A watched erection never returns...

What I meant to say was...

[ralphclark]

Shouldn't a patent be struck down *automatically* once indisputable evidence of prior art turns up?

Re:What I meant to say was...

[zcat_NZ]

Only in a SANE world. The current system is so broken I suspect Microsoft could push through a patent on the wheel or fire, sufficiently obfuscated, and get away with it. Probably the only reason they haven't already is that wheels and fire have very limited use in the world of computer software.

Re:What I meant to say was...

[tsm_sf]

No dude, the whole idea is to patent a LOGICALLY obvious combination of ideas A and B...

Idea A: Thee Sledge
Idea B: Thee Wheel

TOTALLY NOVEL IDEA THAT YOU SHOULD PAY US FOR: A cart.

See? Nevermind that the wheel was invented to make the sledge easier to move around, it's fair game since nobody explicitly stated such.

In the words of Triumph, "did it hurt when they surgically removed your sense of shame?"

Re:What I meant to say was...

[cyborch]

Patent the wheel like this guy [bbc.co.uk] did?

2002-1999=

[josepha48]

3 years.. which is more than the 1 year they are allowed. If it was described in 2001 then they would possibly be okay. So who's going to tell the USPTO? Does anyone know the Patent Examiner? Contact them with the details.....

This is so wrong on so many levels....

Re:2002-1999=

[John Hasler]

A listserv may not count as a "printed publication".

Re:2002-1999=

[josepha48]

Actually it would. If it was described in enough detail to cover the claims section in the patent, it could.

Even if it was on a sci-fi tv show it would count as prior art. EG: no one can get a patent on the flip phone feature, because in the 1960's on Star Trek the communicators would count as prior art and there is nothing unique about the phones themselves.

Just a few notes

[Zaffle]

Its not patenting the idea of the broken Y axis, its a patent on an algorithm to automatically calculate where and how to break the y-axis on a graph. (Not as bad, but still bad).

The patent goes in to explicit detail on how the calculation is done, so you should be able to avoid it by simply doing something slightly differently. The "prior art" mentioned isn't applicable in this case, because the patent is on a particular method of doing this that is different to the prior art mentioned

This however doesn't mean the patent shouldn't be thrown out. Its the equivilant of patenting a sorting algorithm (eg bublesort).

Re:Just a few notes

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Damn You Microsoft

[Y-Axis Man]

Those bastards! The y-axis is mine! I'm filing a lawsuit. The z-axis is mine too - EA and Sega are next.

ALL YOUR X-AXIS ARE BELONG TO US

[leonbrooks]

FOR GREAT GOOD!

...or possibly not, but they belong to us anyway. (-:

Uh oh

[cuteseal]

"To avoid potential patent-infringement lawsuits instigated by the billion dollar giant, Microsoft, schools and teachers nationwide have moved to a new mathematical construct - the discontinuous y-axis..."

er..

[ophix]

i have seen charts with broken Y axis in school textbooks and magazines definately before 1999.

i am talking at least 12 years ago.

no urls to back this up but i cannot be the only one.

Re:er..

[Hognoxious]

have seen charts with broken Y axis in school textbooks and magazines definately before 1999.

There is (or was) a book called "how to lie with statistics" which we used in college - IIRC it contained the broken axis as one of the tricks. That was the late 80s.

Next step...

[Singletoned]

Next they'll be patenting the broken y-chromosome as well.

Invalidation exercise

[Groote Ka]

Invalidity of a patent should be done by checking all elements of the claim and comparing them to prior art.

1. An automated method of graphically representing a plurality of data items, wherein each data item has a numerically quantifiable magnitude and at least one data item is an outlier,

Automated method? Go for method, automating it is obvious.

comprising:

Very nice word. All patent attorneys love to use it.

automatically determining an outlier threshold value, such that representation of both over