Isn't that what patents are for? Independent of what you think about patents in general. AFAIK you need a minimal implementation to get a patent granted, which

Isn't that what patents are for? Independent of what you think about patents in general. AFAIK you need a minimal implementation to get a patent granted, which you could do almost alone (a crappy looking one), and one could start from there. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sure it takes years and cash to finish that process, so it's not for every project, but wouldn't it make sense for some mind-bending idea?