Wisconsin Inventors' Network Database final report

The Wisconsin Innovation Service Center at UW-Whitewater received a DOE grant to create an Inventor's Network Database to assist independent inventors and entrepreneurs with new product development. Since 1980, the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (WISC) at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has assisted independent and small business inventors in estimating the marketability of their new product ideas and inventions. The purpose of the WISC as an economic development entity is to encourage inventors who appear to have commercially viable inventions, based on preliminary market research, to invest in the next stages of development, perhaps investigating prototype development, legal protection, or more in-depth market research. To address inventor's information needs, WISC developed on electronic database with search capabilities by geographic region and by product category/industry. It targets both public and private resources capable of, and interested in, working with individual and small business inventors. At present, the project includes resources in Wisconsin only.