UW research led to $500M business, screening tests for cancer
Wisconsin is a hub of innovation. At UW-Madison and research institutions across the state, researchers are working every day to unlock breakthroughs in medicine, robotics, artifical intelligence and more. This often leads to economic gains for local communities.
But these laboratory discoveries become fruitless if left unprotected – or unapplied. That’s why the U.S. Constitution enshrined a clear path to “promote the progress of science and useful arts” by providing inventors with patents, which give them exclusive protections for their inventions for a defined period of time. These intellectual property (IP) rights help move lifesaving ideas from lab benches into the real world.