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Patents
Because patent searches are very affordable these days, and they can contribute to the professionalism of a presentation made to investors or customers, consider contacting some of the mirror United States Patent Office databases currently available via search engines. This will not guarantee the novelty of your work, but it may lower the risk to investors.
Afraid to let your secret out? Secrecy is ironically a pretty good reason for going public. It is required by our laws, to some degree, or it would be completely reproachable. You don't get anything done when you're secretive -- ask anybody! The only method of reducing productivity more effective is probably STEALING. If you don't know a patent attorney who will review your product's application "on spec," perhaps they might accept stock or "warrants" as remuneration? I find that by being radically honest and refusing to keep secrets, that I am much more productive. Secrecy has been a metaphysical doorway into the truth of being for many, but the most famous "secret society" in America fundamentally teaches the Golden Rule. Don't keep secrets from others if you don't want secrets kept from you.
The "minimum" fee required is $75 for a "provisional patent" for individual inventors. This is somewhat misleading, because one has to prepare illustrations, and carefully describe what one has invented. Patent lawyers do not seem fond of the "provisional" form because it simplifies "patent pending" but complicates many patenting conventions like the "claims." It does have one advantage: the inventor may then stamp "patent pending" on their product. http://www.uspto.gov
My other confusion about this process was that I was under the impression I could show my little product around without filing a $75 fee for a year before applying for a patent. I encourage the reader to ask around.
The "disclosure document program" is a $10 method of mailing initial findings and progress reports to the government in the event one's invention is being developed by a number of inventors in parallel. The "first to invent" rule continues to be the case in this country, but "first to invent" implies an inventor is applying themselves diligently to a product. Fortunately, apparently only one in a thousand patents ever becomes involved in an "interference."
The real patent will cost closer to $1,000, before attorney fees, and this doesn't include registration in the 90 other countries that have additional fee requirements of at least $100 per country.
What if you do not patent your invention?
An interesting question. If one knows that the patent will simplify the orderly dissemination of one's product to organizations throughout the world, one might apply for a patent out of love. If one makes no indication one way or another, this seems inconsiderate to those who might want to develop it further or in ways one wouldn't expect. If one puts the project clearly into the public domain, that doesn't prevent it from being polished in patented ways, and one still gets the credit one deserves for future work.