As is the case with many inventions there is some contention over who the original inventor was. Most credit the invention of the whiteboard to Martin Heit in the late 1950s. Heit, a Korean War veteran, developed a whiteboard using melamine and steel, replacing the traditional chalkboard with a marker-based writing surface. In 2009, Smarter Surfaces began research and development of whiteboard paint, the next chapter for whiteboards.