OK, fair enough. We don't know how long it took to get approved. In theory they could have gone after MS. I vaguely remember that our rival Business Objects had some BI patents and sued us, and we sued them over pivot.

The patent in question appears to have been filed in 1996

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5915257A/en?oq=5915257

A quick search suggests that Excel pivot tables launched in 1993. So the Brio patent does indeed appear to have come later in time.

Note that although the patent indicates ownership by Oracle, the assignment history shows that it originated with Brio.