International Invention Licensing Opportunities
by Dr. Farag Moussa,
IFIA President
December 31, 2004 (Updated on November 10, 2005)

The label of IFIA, a well recognized non-governmental and not-for-profit worldwide organization created 40 years ago, in 1966, is also a guarantee of the credibility of the 1000inventions website in the eyes of the inventors of all countries and continents. In a relatively short time, 1000+ inventions have been posted on this database.

IFIA's international character has made it possible for 1000inventions to receive sponsorships from various international, national or local institutions or companies.

1000inventions offers licensing and sale opportunities at an international level, a necessity in the world of today. It is a fully operational and automated database. The site's architecture is easy to navigate and well laid out. Inventions can be submitted online, by e-mail or by post. Inventions presented on the web can be browsed free of charge via 5 search systems: 1) key words, 2) numerical order, starting by the most recent inventions posted, 3) ten technical categories based on the International Patent Classification (IPC), 4) country of residence of the inventor, 5) name of the inventor.

As an organization of inventors working in favor of inventors, IFIA offers this service free of charge to independent inventors and inventive small enterprises. Companies promoting inventions are asked to pay a modest fee of US $50, per invention. IFIA assists the inventors in filling out their submission forms. The Guidelines on how to fill out the forms exist in eleven languages already, among which the major international languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, Arabic).

The submission forms have to be presented in English. When necessary, IFIA edits the text and improves it from the legal point of view (this in agreement with the inventor of course).

IFIA doesen't ask the inventor any success fees or anything of the kind. And if asked by an inventor for direct business assistance or offered a percentage on the possible success of the invention, IFIA refuses to enter in that matter. The contact address presented on the website is always that of the owner of the invention or his/her representative - guarantee that IFIA does not take part in the business process.

Thus IFIA cannot answer to the question which often comes to the mind: how many contacts have been made and how many deals were concluded? However, we know that thanks to 1000inventions, inventors have been contacted by investors, organizations, buyers, retailers, etc., and that some of them have eventually achieved their goal and did business. Further, IFIA regularly receives many letters of thanks from the inventors who express their gratitude, joy and happiness for the quality of the presentation of their invention on 1000inventions. Extracts of e-mails received in the year 2004 only, are reproduced when clicking from the home page on Testimoniales.

Each invention is presented with illutration(s) when available. References are given concerning the number and date of the patent(s) granted or pending, and in which country(ies). A clear indication is given as to what kind of business the inventor is looking for. If the inventor has a website, the link is added.

Few submissions are sometimes refused by IFIA:
1) the invention has no patent granted or pending in fields where patents are usually granted,
2) if the subject is pornographic or anything of the kind.

As a whole, IFIA only accepts, on a free of charge base, two inventions per inventor, per year, but never refuses an invention under the pretext that it is "unimportant". History has proven that so-called "unimportant inventions" have brought millions to their inventors, while others are being "re-discovered" years later.

1000inventions is rapidly expanding and adds new inventions to the site every week. We have also started to feature other relevant topics. The first being a section devoted to the inventions by women and presented on 1000inventions; they represent between 12 and 13% of all the 1000 inventions presented. This section of our website on women inventions is highly ranked by Google search engine. A second section is devoted to the inventions by kids and youth up to 18 years old. As to web traffic, we can say that during the past 2 years, that is since we added a counter (October 2, 2003), 1000inventions has logged over 72,000 hits, with an average of 3,000 hits per month.