I am creating a social networking website.. Do I have to patent my idea to keep it protected?

Dear Yahoo! Members,





My partner's and I have recently invested in a server, and are creating a small, but unique social networking idea that will be initially a local system for local members of nearby schools.





Furthermore, in the short future, once the site is online and up, I intend to create a Business Plan and look for angel investors.





I was wondering, since everything will be going public and everything will be revealed in a business plan, is it normal for people to patent such ideas before anything is public or has been presented? Or is it impossible to patent the features of a website?





If this is all possbible, do any of you have any idea of the realistic price I would be paying, and how long the approval turnaround is for such a thing?





Please share your thoughts, and ideas, as I would love to understand and execute this properly.





Looking for your guidance.





P.S. Not sure if this matters, but I am based in Canada, and not the USA.

I am creating a social networking website.. Do I have to patent my idea to keep it protected?
You can protect the technology using a javascript called no right click. This will block anyone from seeing the coding that makes the site work. Aside form that you are protected by installing the statement at the bottom of evey page:


Copyright © 2006 Your Comany all rights reserved.


This is a legal copyright world wide protection for electronic media. Hope this helps
Reply:Another way of helping to secure the site is by using the URL block script. As well, using CSS+PHP you can hide the main stuff in coded blocks that others can never see.For an example of the URL block, I use it on my site listed in my signature above. Good luck. Report It