For more info on patents, publishing, and trademarks:

http://overunity.com/index.php/topic,106.0.html


Here's another reply on this topic:

+++++++++++
The best course of action will depend on what your objective is. If you
want to give away the idea, then you should publish it. 35 USC 102(f)
bars anyone but the first and true inventor from getting a patent,
although it doesn't stop them from trying. Similar rules apply in other
countries.

If you want to retain control you will have to apply for a patent.
Different strategies will apply depending on whether you want to speed up
this process or slow it down. If you want to speed it up, you can file a
petition to make special, on any of various grounds, one of which is
having done your own search. There are many reasons why you may want
protection to kick in sooner.

You may instead want to slow it down. Many people do, usually because
their marketing/maufacturing/licencing plans have to catch up with their
inventing. This may especially be true if you don't plan to exploit your
invention atall, but merely retain control over how others use it. In the
US you can delay filing upto a year after disclosure/offer for
sale/public use, albeit you lose your rights in most foreign countries by
doing so. Then you can file a provisional application and file the
regular application another year after that.

If you haven't already lost your foreign rights, you can file an
international (PCT) application within a year of your earliest filing
date, and delay national proceedings in other countries until 30 months
after that earliest filing date. This contrasts with individual national
applications that would otherwise have to be filed within a year of that
same date (called your priority date). Of course, you may not want to
file overseas anyway.

Don't bother mailing things to yourself, and don't bother with the
official 'document disclosure' programme. The former proves nothing that
can't be better proved by notarising, and the latter documents are
routinely destroyed before you need to rely on them.
+++++++++++