I have just found out that some wit has submitted a patent for a software, representing a kind of a recurrence plot or distance matrix:
US Patent 6,195,103, by Stewart, Hugh Bruce
Volatility plot and volatility alert for display of time series data
A computer software system for displaying time series data as a color image in which one axis of said image represents sequential time and a second axis represents an offset in time from the time represented in said first axis. The computer software resides on a computer having at least one storage medium, at least one CPU, a power means, and an operating system.
full text of the patent (external link)
I'm very amused to see what it is possible to get a patent.
Norbert