Wisconsin Company Receives US Patent For Crime Mapping GPS Navigation System

APPLETON, Wis., Dec. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Wisconsin inventors have developed and successfully patented CrimeAware™, a product that provides real-time crime data on web-connected smartphones and GPS units.

Tom Trinko and Paul Hager with legal help from patent attorney Keith Baxter of Boyle Fredrickson, S.C., the largest intellectual property law firm in Wisconsin, who received the patent, believe there is a market for GPS units that have crime information available onboard.

"It's a natural evolution of information and technology to combine incident-based crime data with portable navigation systems in an easy-to-read format for consumers, companies and even law enforcement use," says Trinko, an entrepreneur with an International Executive MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from UW-Eau Claire.

The idea for CrimeAware originated as Trinko and his wife drove their rented yellow Mustang convertible around Miami while on a vacation. "We turned into the wrong neighborhood as we tried to find our way to a Latin Music Awards show, and we both wondered why our GPS had sent us on a confusing route into a questionable part of town," he says.

"We believe that people visiting unfamiliar cities need and want to be aware at-a-glance of where there are concentrations of crime. This patent represents that idea," says Trinko. "Our ultimate goal is to provide travelers with information about their immediate surroundings and route of travel, and community members with the tools to understand how crime may impact them. We want to help people make smart decisions about their surroundings. We think that objective, incident-based data provides the opportunity for consumers and the general public to be better informed."

According to Hager, Rio Sisa Idea Farm has many plans for use of the new patent. "Among other things, we are in the process of developing an application that consumers can download with relevant crime information presented in an easy-to-use format," he said. The phone has been ringing too. "We've had substantial interest from crime data companies, a GPS manufacturer, and even mapping companies regarding licensing the technology."

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