Attention to invention: helping entrepreneurs get their inventions to market can be a great economic development tool.

• Author: Boulard, Garry

When Vladimir Gelfand emigrated with his family from Russia to the United States in the early 1990s, he was certain that he would find a welcoming environment for an invention he had been working on for several years.

"This is one of the great things that I have always heard about this country," says Gelfand, who is 53 years old and works as a mechanical engineer for an injection molding company in Wheeling, Ill.

"I have no connections with anyone in power," explains Gelfand. "But because things are supposed to be more open here and there is less bureaucracy, I thought it would be easy for me to find someone who could listen to my idea and then give me some direction in terms of what part of the government might be interested."

That idea is officially called the Gelfand Internal Combustion Engine, which in the simplest terms marries the fuel efficiency of a compact engine with the power of an engine that might be found in an SUV by changing the way the piston works and essentially increasing its productivity.

"I have always thought that the potential for something like this is enormous because it reduces emissions and greatly increases fuel efficiency, and aren't those the two things everyone is always saying are so important?" asks Gelfand.

In early 2005, Gelfand was awarded a patent for his invention, but he has so far failed to find anyone who can begin the complicated process of transforming his vision into a marketable product. And that's after making contact with what he says is a "long list" of both state and federal agencies charged with encouraging inventions and technological innovations.

"When you think about it, this is really a very serious matter," says Steven J. Rauschenberger, a former Illinois state senator, whom Gelfand contacted nearly three years ago.

"I thought his idea was very interesting and I tried to make some connections for him," explains Rauschenberger. "But watching what has happened or not happened from afar has really surprised me. No one has seemed able to give Mr. Gelfand a straight answer, or even more important, to point him in the direction of an agency or company that might actually be able to do something with his invention."

A REAL WEAKNESS

Rauschenberger believes Gelfand is very frustrated, but, he says, what bothers Rauschenberger the most is that "his case suggests that we may have some real weaknesses in our system. We are always saying, certainly at the state level, that we want to help...