Oh well, the Excel team itself credits Tufte with the invention : http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/07/17/sparklines-in-excel.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com

Oh well, the Excel team itself credits Tufte with the invention : http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/07/17/sparklines-in-excel.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/07/17/sparklines-in... What's more it's by the Patent applicant himself - Sam Radakovitz! Something is missing here.