A Brief History of the Inventors Assistance League Program

The Inventors Assistance League was founded in 1962 by Mr. Ted De Boer, the son of a Dutch immigrant who was also an inventor. Ted's early adult years were filled with a variety of experiences, including being a secret service agent, working with Andre Gromyko in San Francisco where the United Nations was born, being a R&D engineer in Northrop Aviation Skybolt Missile Program in the South Pacific, working directly with Dr. Dumont in perfecting the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and being with Bill Lear back in Michigan where he developed the automatic pilot for the now famous Lear Jet.

Primarily, though, he worked as an electronics research and development engineer with several companies. It was in that role Ted was first exposed to the corporate practice of documenting research and development activities in what was then, and still is, known as a "laboratory notebook."

De Boer's interest in inventing led to his enrollment and completion of patent school. There he discovered that U.S. Patent Law gives priority protection to the first-to-invent—not the first-to-file for a patent. And first-to-invent protection can be gained by keeping those "laboratory notebooks."

Realizing that no one was teaching individual inventors how to protect ideas under this "first-to-invent" provision of the patent law, Ted dedicated his life to doing so with a missionary zeal. However, he soon came face to face with the reality that protection is only a small piece of the puzzle. The challenge of getting a product into the marketplace was a much greater one.

Through trial and error, working with thousands of inventors since 1962, Ted developed a creative strategy to get ideas in front of manufacturers in a way that could lead to royalty-based licensing between inventors and manufacturers.

While the educational value of this program may well justify its affordable cost, the Inventors Assistance League Program truly provides a genuine opportunity for inventors to pursue their dreams and see them fulfilled!

To help inventors fulfill their dreams, the Inventors Assistance League offers two educational products:

Our Intro-Pak which provides a great deal of basic information about the invention process, and helps you, the inventor, understand your options and answer that nagging question, "I have an idea...Now what?".
Our flagship product the Home Study Program which actually goes into all the detail you need for protecting all your ideas during the invention process and, eventually, profiting from your ideas. These products can be ordered by means of our printable, self-calculating order form.

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