[f.Christian]

Just getting a patent mostly proves some fool has a few thousand $ $ $ ' s to throw away to hang something on the wall that two years later they can't give away !

[Aric2000]

Myself, I use the poor man's patent, works good.

You put the design and explantion in an envelope and send it to yourself. The datestamp over the stamp tells the date of the design.

Then, you leave it safe somewhere, UNOPENED, then, if someone steals the design, you can take it court and use the unopened envelope with the datestamp to prove that you came up with it first.

Works pretty well, from what I understand.

But, a patent, though it costs money, will protect you a bit better then a poor man's patent.

[Aric2000]

And you are making sense again, this is downright scary.

[null and void]

A few years back, I parlayed one into a 5 year job at $85+K/year...