Terms of use

The American Institute Of Architects Terms of use

Last Updated: November 2023  

Close up of curved metal and glass building

The American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) website is controlled and operated in whole or in part by the AIA from its offices within the United States. The AIA makes no representation that these materials are appropriate or available for use outside the territory of the United States. Users outside of the United States who access the AIA website do so at their own risk and are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws. The AIA reserves the right in its sole discretion to refuse or terminate access to its website at any time.

The AIA reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time. Your continued use of the website shall be deemed to be your acceptance of any modified Terms of Use. If any future change is unacceptable to you, you should discontinue using the website.

The AIA website is owned by AIA, which owns (or licenses) all the wallpaper, characters, artwork, icons, graphics, music, text, and other content on the site, unless otherwise indicated ("Content"), and all HTML, CGI, and other code and scripts in any format used to implement the site ("Code"). You may not copy, modify, upload, download, transmit, (re)publish, or otherwise distribute any Code or Content from these sites except as expressly permitted by these rules and the instructions for each section of any portion of the website.

You may not modify or use the Content or Code you receive from these sites for any purpose other than those permitted and doing so will violate AIA's copyright and other proprietary rights. AIA performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of AIA's right to comply with law enforcement requests or requirements relating to the user's use of these sites or information provided to or gathered by AIA with respect to such use.

The AIA’s registered trademarks include but are not limited to “The American Institute of Architects,” “FAIA,” “AIA,” the AIA Circle Logo, the Eagle and Column Logo, “AIA College of Fellows,” “AIA Conference on Architecture and Design,” and “AIArchitect.” Nothing in these terms of use or on the AIA’s website shall be construed to grant any rights or license to any AIA trademark.

 

Copyright Notice, Unless otherwise specified herein or within the website, the following notice applies to all content of this website:

Copyright © 2025

The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006 
U.S.A.
All rights reserved. 

The AIA does not sponsor or endorse any enterprise whether public or private, operated for profit. Further, no AIA officer, director, committee member, or employee or any of its component organizations in his or her official capacity is permitted to approve, sponsor, endorse, or do anything that may be deemed or construed to be an approval, sponsorship, or endorsement of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product. 

 

You acknowledge you have read and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. You further agree to comply with all local laws, regulations, and rules regarding online conduct and acceptable website/internet content. You represent you have the legal authority to accept these Terms of Use on behalf of yourself or any party you represent.

If you do not agree to these terms, please discontinue use of the AIA website. 

The following terms apply to areas of the AIA website that allow third party users to post content ("User Generated Content"), including, without limitation, in discussion forums ("Forums"). You agree that your registration for, access to, and participation in any Forum is subject to these terms, and applicable law.

The AIA does not pre-screen User Generated Content. The AIA retains the rights, but not the responsibility, to edit or remove any User Generated Content and/or terminate your account for any reason in its sole discretion.

Do not post any content that violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law.

Do not post any content, or take any action, that is designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, telecommunications equipment, or to interfere with or disrupt the website or services connected to the website.

Your User Generated Content is not confidential or proprietary. You grant to the AIA a non-exclusive, non-revocable, worldwide, perpetual right to use your User Generated Content in any manner or media now or later known without limitation including but not limited to the right to sublicense and assign and commercialize without any compensation due to you.

Ownership. You are responsible for ensuring that any User Generated Content that you post does not, and will not violate third party rights of any kind. You warrant and represent that you own or control all rights or have obtained the necessary permissions from the owner of such rights, in any User Generated Content that you post to any Forum.

General Use. You acknowledge and agree that the AIA does not have any obligation to review User Generated Content, that the AIA is not in any manner responsible for User Generated Content that the AIA does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of User Generated Content, and that the AIA cannot ensure that harmful, inaccurate, deceptive, offensive, threatening, defamatory, unlawful or otherwise objectionable User Generated Content will not appear on the website. You also acknowledge that by providing you with the ability to access, view and/or post User Generated Content on the website, the AIA is merely acting as a passive conduit for such distribution and is not undertaking any obligation or liability relating to any User Generated Content or activities of users on the website.

Users agree to use the AIA website user-generated content functions only to send and receive messages and material that are proper and related to the particular Forum. In addition to the terms stated herein and by way of example and not as a limitation, the user agrees that when using a Forum, users shall not:

  • post anything harassing or discriminatory;
  • post any materials that violate any federal or state laws, including but not limited to libel, slander, antitrust, trademark, copyright, patent, or unfair competition;
  • advocate or discuss illegal activity;
  • post anything which could encourage or facilitate discussions or any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade;
  • post anything that could encourage or facilitate discussions about salaries, prices, discounts, terms of sales, profits, profit margins, cost data, or market shares;
  • post any materials that do not pertain to the discussion, topic or theme of the Forum;
  • infringe upon a third-party copyright, nor invade the privacy or publicity rights of others;
  • post anything protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner;
  • post anything that is knowingly false, defamatory, profane, vulgar, obscene, threatening, abusive, hateful, bigoted, racially offensive, pornographic, embarrassing, or that has any potential to cause any harm or damage to     anyone as determined by AIA in its sole discretion;
  • post anything of a sexual nature;
  • use the Forum for junk mail, spam, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  • impersonate anyone or misrepresent who you are;
  • advertise, sell, or solicit others;
  • use any Forum for any commercial purposes, even if you disclose that you are doing so; and
  • post personally identifiable information or financial information.

You represent and warrant also that the content you supply does not violate these terms, and that you will indemnify and hold the AIA harmless for any and all claims resulting from content you supply. 

If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any User submission or other content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by providing our Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3) for further detail):

The American Institute of Architects’ designated Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is: Cassandra Brown, email: cbrown@aia.org. For clarity, only DMCA notices should go to the Copyright Agent. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section (d)(3), your DMCA notice may not be valid.

Counter-Notice. If you believe that your User Submission that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or pursuant to the law, to post and use the content in your User Submission, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Copyright Agent:

If a counter-notice is received by the Copyright Agent, the AIA may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed content or cease disabling it in ten (10) business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may be replaced, or access to it restored, in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at the AIA's sole discretion.

 

DISCLAIMERS

 

THE CONTENT, CODE, ACCESS, AND OTHER FEATURES OF THESE SITES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND/OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE AIA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY SUCH FEATURES WILL OPERATE IN AN UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE FASHION, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THESE SITES OR THE SERVER ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AIA BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST PROFITS AND COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS, ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY CONTENT OR FEATURES, OR YOUR FAILURE TO ACCESS OR CLICK-THROUGH ACCESS ANY CONTENT OR FEATURES, EVEN IF THE AIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE AIA SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIMS BROUGHT BY THE OWNERS OF CONTENT OR SITES ACCESSED THROUGH CLICK-THRU ACCESS BASED ON YOUR INAPPROPRIATE OR UNPERMITTED ACCESS OF SUCH CONTENT OR SITES. YOU HEREBY AGREE TO INDEMNIFY THE AIA FOR SUCH CLAIMS IF BROUGHT AGAINST THE AIA IF YOU USED THIS SITE FOR SUCH INAPPROPRIATE OR UNPERMITTED ACCESS.

Applicable Law

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. Those who choose to access these sites from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

The United States controls the export of any software downloadable from this website. No software or any other materials associated with the AIA website may be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported to countries or persons prohibited under export control laws, including but not limited to countries against which the United States has embargoed goods, or to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons or the U.S. Commerce Department’s Table of Deny Orders. You are responsible for compliance with the laws of your local jurisdiction regarding the import, export, or re-export of any such materials. By using and/or downloading any such materials from the AIA website, you represent and warrant that you are no located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country to which such import, export, or re-export is prohibited or are not a person or entity to which such export is prohibited.

If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.