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This can be easy or it can be hard. The easy way out is if you work for a company that takes care of all the paperwork associated with filing. The hard way out is for you to hire a patent attorney who is learning the ropes at your experience.

A more practical way for those of you who have to watch the bottomline is to file it yourself. Firstly, write down the patent idea in a book and have it witnessed by somebody else (with their signature) along with the date and time. This will protect your partially if their is a dispute later.

Then you can file a provisional patent for a couple of hundred dollars. This will give you protection for a year. Within a year, you will have to file for the actual patent. This would cost more but until then you will probably have time to think about whether you really want to proceed with the filing. All paperwork related to the provisional and actual patent is available from the US patents office (uspto.gov).

Now note that while filing a patent it is not necessary for you to prove that nobody else has patented the idea previously. Of course, if you are aware of related ideas, then you have to disclose them. Else, it is upto the patent examiner (the person who decides if your patent application can be accepted) to show similarities with other work. In such a case, you will have to prove the difference in your work before your application can be accepted.

So then good luck, patenting.

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