Ahh, so something as simple as IT worker chatter, like a guy visiting your workplace see's this system and tells other people, until eventually the idea is cropping up all over the place. I have worried about that, specifically with support software for 3rd party packages like FTGate which could literally be copied onto a floppy disk then sold to anyone running FTGate. That's why we don't deal with any 3rd party IT people now, but that's a different matter.
If it's the type of thing that can be packaged up and sold, then I think you'd be as well doing that, make a website up telling what it does, then offer it for sale (even at rediculous prices) - at least if anyone takes the idea you have legs to stand on, patenting could take years.
An example might be Atari's 9-pin DPlug developed for the 2600, the standard port for 8 and 16-bit computers as well as the Mastersystem and Megadrive/Genesis etc. They invented that, but I don't think they patented it. They still managed to sue the pants off SEGA for using it - if you consider how many applications use 9-pin D plugs, it's easy to see how far things can freely go without a patent.
Van-B
It's c**p being the only coder in the village.
