Maybe you're on the wrong site.

Wish to hear some more from you Sand.

I set out my ideas for fun. I'm past being interested in development.

If I offer up ideas on this site, I do not expect to profit from it. I post ideas here that I assume I can't personally make money with, but maybe somebody else can. If anybody benefits in any way from my suggestions, then I've accomplished more than if I kept my ideas to myself.

Your ideas are protected. When you post them here, it is considered a public disclosure, and it can be used as evidence in an investigation of inventorship. After your publication here, according to US patent law, you have a 1-year grace period to apply for a patent on the invention. After one year, nobody (including you) can receive a patent on the idea that has been sitting for 1 year. The idea becomes part of un-patentable human knowledge ("prior art"). Again, this assumes that the patent examiner can find this site. Any public web site is considered to be part of human "prior art." What if you don't have the idea and application ready in 1-year? You can get an exception to the 1-year deadline if you were able to prove that you've actively been working on taking your concept to actual feasible plans or a prototype.So really, this web site probably prevents as many patents are it creates. But it's all good because we can always come up with more good ideas to improve humanity's condition.

A good many of the ideas presented here (including mine) are nebulous and mere vectors as to general lacks in current availability of technology. To my mind this is all to the good as it might spur innovation and, very perhaps, something actual to confront real problems. If nothing else it inspires spirited discussion of problems and valid criticism of suggestions.

Going back to Caj's comment, (sorry I don't mean to appear rude overlooking your well sculpted and accurate comment Sand).

The one year grace does not apply to quite a few countries, but, none-the-less it covers the most influential ones. So yes, by posting here, you are creating evidence of inventorship. It's just in order for that evidence to stand, you need many people to witness, which brings me onto;

If there where a small group of us, whom downloaded the updated whynot database of ideas, every few days, then it could prove a legit backup.

Let's be honest, a lot of us have good ideas, some even may be profitable, it's good to have an online collective scrutinizing and assisting to iron out the creases of your idea for free before you go about producing it...

this site is not even a base for what you want to develope, if you want real feedback from experts which you will pay royalties for, you need a far more organized system with experts enlisted by the site, here you hear from other creative people, also, there is no protection for your idea, this is an open site, and as far as i can tell, that is the way we like it.

The concept of patenting an invention has to be reorganized. Nowadays it is very hard to come up with something genuinely new and innovative without copying or "borrowing" bits and pieces from other inventions. We are more or less in a progressive state rather than an inventive state. Any new invention can be contested provided you have the backing resources to do so. Big companies have this sort of "power" and they don't hesitate to use it if it is their gain. To cut short, a big company would spend $100000 to sue you before investing $1000 in your invention. These companies have to justify their multi-million dollar R&D departments and their over-paid engineers...It would be a major blow to their image to accept defeat from a backyard inventor.I propose to simply create a website where creative people would post their ideas for free and if someone is interested with the idea, they could contact the owner of the idea...a bit like a photographer licenses his photos. The comncept has to be refined, but the main idea is to make nearly everything public domain sot that noone gets ripped of by these big companies!

Every idea you have need not be for profit. I do have ideas whichI regularly post some of them are futuristic some on envoirnmentI do not do it for gain, it is only to interact with like mindedindividuals. I have ideas which have been dormant for many years.I feel this is the right portal to post.

I'm afraid that the author of this post doesn't understand the way free enterprise and patents work.

1. Scrutinized by experts: I'm a 18-year mechanical engineer and I'm sure many other qualified technical professionals are reading this site too. The experts you're lacking are the people that can look into the future and see if the idea will work and will sell at a profit. That's because there are no such people.

2. There are no 'patent companies'--ideas are free until they're patented. I have a patent and was I was trained in college about the treatment of intellectual property. If you have an idea that you think will make money (the only reason products actually get made) then you protect it--then you or your company pays a lawyer to do a patent search and submit it (about $5k US) and if it's worthwhile, you patent it. Then and only then do you tell someone about it.

3. Organizers-investors--my experience is that big companies build things that are along the lines of what they already make. If you have a new idea for a pan, you go to a cook-ware company. But big companies seldom take risks. And they only risk if they'll get the reward, not you. You might be able to sell your idea. Otherwise, fund yourself and build yourself.

4. So this site is really has to be just for dreamers. If you post an idea here, you've given it away. it's free for the taking. There's no way you could legally defend it as your own. But dreaming is fun.

are we really protected? i was told by an independent inventor that you still have to apply for a public disclosure with the uspto for about 25 bucks.