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Innovation, Technology, & Patents

Local Level Assistance

Lakeshore Entrepreneurs & Inventors Network
You are invited to join us for our annual spring and fall series that will educate and empower the entrepreneurial spirit on the Lakeshore. Our topics and speakers will feature ideas and resources to help you learn how to adapt and prosper in our world of constant change.

Regional Assistance

Wisconsin Innovation Network – Northeast Wisconsin Chapter
The Northeast Wisconsin chapter of the Wisconsin Innovation Network (WIN NE) is one of 6 WIN chapters in the state. WIN NE is a network for entrepreneurs and individuals seeking to aggressively grow their businesses through innovation in a knowledge-based economy.

State Level Assistance

Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (UW-Whitewater) | View Services Brochure
The Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (WISC) specializes in new product and invention assessments and market expansion opportunities for innovative manufacturers, technology businesses, and independent inventors. Since 1980, WISC has researched the viability of more than 8,000 projects.

WiSys Technology Foundation
WiSys Technology Foundation works hand in hand with the University of Wisconsin System to support research and technology development, link campus innovators with industry leaders and speed technology transfer through patent and licensing activities.

Wisconsin Technology Business Development
Links to resources for businesses seeking to innovate. 

UW-Madison Technology Transfer Team
Technology transfer includes both educating students who transfer what they have learned to the commercial sector and, as more commonly defined, moving technological advances (ideas, products, processes) into the private sector where they can be commercialized to produce new products and processes or used to improve existing ones.               

Federal Level Assistance

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
Both programs are grants for businesses seeking the research and development of new technologies for commercial use. 

US Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. In doing this, the USPTO fulfills the mandate of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the Constitution that the Executive branch "promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries."