[Chuck Moreland]

Everyone has a 'great idea'. The reason 99.9999%+ of those ideas never happen is because it is hard work and involves putting capital at risk to bring ideas to fruition. And there is no guarantee of success.

Coming up with ideas is easy. Turning ideas into saleable products and creating markets for those products is hard work. Very hard.

That is the biggest impediment to people stealing your idea.

Think about that for a minute. An undeveloped idea is nearly worthless. Everyone already has their own undeveloped ideas. And they aren't acting on their own ideas due to the work and capital requirements.

Why would they steal yours?

That said, you might be able to get a patent. But know that a patent attorney is going to cost $15k plus depending on complexity. This process takes 3-4 years. There is no assurance your patent will be approved. And if it is, the patent merely gives you the right to bring a civil suit (more legal fees) against an infringer. In no way does it prevent infringement or assure you will win that suit.

If you want to share ideas you can have people sign a non disclosure agreement. You can write it anyway you want. It would be typical to say that you are going to provide some information, and the information can only be used for specific purposes that you define. If they violate the terms of the agreement, you could bring suit (more legal dollars spent).