FAQ's
About The Inventors Alliance (A Brief Summary)

Successful Inventors, Prototype Experts, Manufacturing Experts & Patent Attorneys speak at our meetings every month. Attendees also benefit from networking with other members, speakers and service providers.

• The Inventors Alliance has three active chapters.
• Internet Chapter (established 2004) Standard Lectures Are FREE 
  
• San Francisco / Silicon Valley Bay Area (established 1993) Main Event in Sunnyvale,CA
• Sacramento,California (established 2002) lectures in downtown Sacramento, CA
• Los Angeles(will be established in 2005 if we get enough interest)

About The Inventors Alliance
Inventors Alliance was formed in 1993 solely for educational purposes. The mission of Inventors Alliance  is to educate inventors enabling them to sell their ideas. Subscribing to any one of our chapter newsletters is absolutely free and is the best way to get notification of upcoming on and off-line meetings. We are here to support independent inventors, product developers and innovative companies through our educational and networking opportunities.

Founded
The Inventors Alliance was founded in the San Francisco & Silicon Valley
Bay Area mid 1993.

Mission Statement
The mission of the Inventors Alliance is to provide educational
opportunities for Inventors, with the goal of giving them the information
they need to bring their products to market.

What We Teach
We teach our members about all aspects of the invention process. Marketing,
Manufacturing, Venturing(starting your own company), Licensing(selling your ideas for a royalty), Prototyping, Sales & patenting are all
taught at the Inventors Alliance.

Who Teaches?
Highly respected experts come to speak to the Inventors Alliance every
month. QVC(television shopping)& the Sharper Image are two of many
corporations that have spoke to our organization. Many legal experts such as
David Pressman (author of the world renowned "Patent It Yourself") self help
legal guide and John Ferrell(author of "Patent Pro Se" have spoken. Then of
course there are the many successful inventors that have spoken to our
organization. Some notable successfully inventors that have spoken to IA are
the inventors of the duracell battery tester, the inventor of the Pet Rock
and the inventor of a new medical syringe that saves lives. Inventor/Author
Educators such as Stephen Key and Robert Merrick speak to IA regularly.
Prototype experts with hollywood special effects connections have also spoke to
Inventors Alliance and shared a trade secret or two. Then of course there
are the manufacturing experts that specialize in everything from injection
molding to electronics manufacturing.

About Meetings
Inventors Alliance meetings emphasize education and networking. The main
focus is on the speakers during our monthly seminars and conferences.
Although the emphasis is on education. Many members benefit from networking
with other members. Meetings take place live at our San Francisco and
Sacramento Chapters while our Internet Chapter host live lectures over the
Internet/Phone making our knowledgeable speakers accessible to anyone in the world with an
Internet connection.

The Members
Our members span a wide range of personalities and expertise. Everyone from
plumbers to astro physicists attend our meeting to learn how to make their
ideas a reality.

About Our Chapters
The San Francisco / Silicon Valley Bay Area Chapter(established 1993) hosts
live lectures in Sunnyvale, CA every month.

The Sacramento,California Chapter(established 2002)hosts live lectures in
downtown Sacramento every month.

Our new Internet Chapter (established 2004) hosts live phone/internet
lectures every month.

Inventors Alliance Positions On Issues
IA is a non-political non-partisan organization.

FAQs about IA

• Does IA have a newsletter?
• IA Organization Status and Tax Status
• Is IA a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization?
• Is the meeting fee tax deductible?
• If I talk about my invention with members, at meetings or on this site, is there a danger to my intellectual property rights?
• What is IAs position or opinion on...?
• Why were the Inventors' Digest (ID) articles dropped from the newsletter and Web?

FAQs about this Site

• What if I get a "Bad Request" message from your server?
• What are the purpose and objectives of this site?
• Why don't you use frames on your site?
• Why isn't this site more entertaining?
• Is the IA Newsletter on this site?
• Why not have a scanned image of the newsletter on the site?
• What is your criteria for linking to other sites?
• Why aren't there a lot of gizmos on your pages?
• Searching Tips

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FAQs about IA

Does IA have a newsletter?

Inventors' Alliance publishes a monthly newsletter, which contains some of the information on this site including the next-meeting preview, information about IA (this page), some resource listings, the maps to the meeting, some course listings, and information about other groups. The newsletter is sent at no charge to all current members (see "How can I become a member").

Is IA a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization?

No, it is not. Tax exempt status adds a complexity because of regulations and red tape and we don't have the resources (volunteers' time) to comply with the requirements for maintaining 501(c)(3) status. We may consider this in the future if it should appear advantageous for us.

Is the meeting fee tax deductible?

Not as a tax exempt contribution. Consult with your tax advisor for more information.

If I talk about my invention with members, at meetings or on this site, is there a danger to my intellectual property rights?

Absolutely! Someone could steal your idea or it could become part of the public domain thereby limiting your ability to patent or protect it. You should always consult your legal advisor before disclosing any information about your ideas to anyone. Of course, if you never tell anyone, you'll never make any money! Only you can decide the risk-reward trade-off of talking about your ideas.

What is IAs position or opinion on...?

IA is an informal group of voluntary participants and as such does not have a collective position or opinion on any issue. Our members hold a wide range of diverse interests and opinions and the IA group does not represent any of those positions nor does any member represent any position of the group. IA is a non-political non-partisan organization.

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FAQs about this Site

What if I get a "Bad Request" message from your server?

This happens occasionally (rarely) due to communications errors and other unknown causes. Sometimes when you get this message once, you will get it on all subsequent requests to that page. To clear this condition, after you get the message hold down on the "shift" key while clicking on the "Reload" button.

What are the purpose and objectives of this site?

This Web site exists for the sole purpose of helping current IA members become successful from their inventions. The site objectives in order of priority are:
• Provide a fast and convenient communications network for IA members.
• Provide an on-line library of information not available elsewhere for IA members.
• Provide links to other sites useful to IA members.
• Reach out to potential new IA members geographically close enough to come to meetings.
• Provide a means for potential speakers and affiliates to get familiar with IA.

Why don't you use frames on your site?

Frames are useful in keeping certain information "in your face" whether you like it or not. Web developers often use this feature to keep advertising displayed for the site host or sponsors and to keep a navigation device like a button bar displayed. The downside of this is that users are forced to give up a lot of display area for information they may not need or want. We don't advertise so we have no sponsors clamoring for "persistence of impression". We intentionally keep navigation on our site simple so that you don't have to have a "road map in your lap" all the time. We also think you should decide how to arrange your display windows. So unless we encounter a situation where the benefits far out weigh the costs to usability, we will shy away from using frames.

Why isn't this site more entertaining?

Passive entertainment is not a purpose of this site, so you will not find jokes, pretty pictures, animations, movies, audio clips, etc. There are already plenty of sources of entertainment on the Web (use your favorite search engine) and on the air (use your local television viewing guide). If your personal goal is to get rich from your inventions, you will probably find this the information in this site very entertaining.

Is the IA Newsletter on this site?

All of the information contained in IA's monthly newsletter, The Bay Area Inventor, is on this site including the next-meeting preview, information about IA (this page), resource listings, the maps to the meeting, course listings, and information about other groups. Each month the newsletter editor sends the entire contents of the newsletter to the webmaster who then posts it to the appropriate pages of the site.

Why not have a scanned image of the newsletter on the site?

HTML (normal Web text) has numerous advantages over a scanned image of text:

• It displays MUCH faster,
• it displays even if you have your "Options: Auto Load Images" feature turned off as do many speed surfers and low bandwidth clients,
• the text automatically adjusts to accommodate your display size and settings,
• words can be linked to other pages or parts of the same document,
• text automatically wraps to fit in your window,
• you can cut and paste portions of the text to other documents or print selections from the document,
• you can use the "Edit: Find" command to search for words,
• search engines can search it and therefore index on its contents.
On the other hand, some people find the image of print media layout and typesetting more aesthetically pleasing. If you prefer the newsletter for its shorter text lines or its font, you can usually apply these features to HTML text via the setup options of your browser.

What is your criteria for linking to other sites?

We are currently reviewing our linking policy. Generally, we determine the suitability of a link by reviewing it in the context of our organization and site purposes and objectives. If the site is substantially advertising for a for-profit organization and has little other content of value to the inventor, we will not link to it. As we refine our policy, we will update it here and reconsider linking sites that were not linked in the past.

Why aren't there a lot of gizmos on your pages?

The simplicity of our site is a philosophical approach based in part on the priorities of the site, information over marketing and entertainment, and the trade off between aesthetics and speed. If you spend much time on the Web looking for information to accomplish your goals, you are probably frustrated when fluff becomes a barrier to getting the information you need. Many users browse with image loading turned off and many have modem speeds of 28.8 or less. It greatly inconveniences those users when critical information (especially navigation) is embedded in images or Byzantine frame structures. Our goal is to inform rather than entertain, so we prefer to spend our resources (and ultimately, yours) on content rather than decorations such as non-informative images, animations, banners, etc. Our "less is more" philosophy of Web style is expressed well by the "HTML Hell Page" and the pages it links.

Searching Tips?

Our site search uses the Google search engine. It may not be current depending on when Google last crawled our site. We have no control over the currency of their searches.