A provisional patent is cheap, and if you just want to defend yourself from someone else later patenting your idea, it works just fine. You just write up a nic

A provisional patent is cheap, and if you just want to defend yourself from someone else later patenting your idea, it works just fine. You just write up a nice human-readable description of what you're doing and submit it to the USPTO. I think it's like a hundred bucks or so. Filing a full patent costs about $500. If you're willing to work, meaning, read a couple of books, read a couple of patents front to back, it's not that hard to file your own (called "Pro Se" by patent folks). Once you learn the ins and outs of patents, it's really not that hard nor that expensive to patent something yourself. At the very least, if you do file your own, you get "patent pending" protection ("protection" meaning, you've legally allowed to warn potential infringers that you've filed the papers officially) for a good 3-5 years while the patent office reviews your application.