hey!:
Outstanding reply. I agree 100%. Look, in the United States, we have a first to invent system. That means, the first person who invents an idea is entitled to an invention for at least a year following that invention (there are some caveats re: follow-up publication or offers for sale). If you want to play it safe, record all details of your idea, and subsequent embellishments to a laboratory notebook. Your best bet, will be to get a notebook that is permanently bound together, and has page numbers. Date each page, and occasionally have a witness sign the pages with major breakthroughs. I've told others of my ideas very liberally, and to be honest, seeing others' reactions tends to confirm that there is too much cost, too little market, or to little in the way of implementation for the idea to be commercially profitable. Those ideas that make it through the sieve -- PATENT ON ! And line up those investors, implementers, promoters, patent attorneys... ad nauseum. As I always say, "More cooks enhances the broth."