Originally posted by ankur rathi:
1. How to file a patent?
as others have said, fill out the paperwork needed for the given country, pay the fees.
2. How to make sure that this idea is not yet patented?
You can do a "patent search" of "prior art" to see if someone else has beat you to it. You can do it yourself, or pay someone professional. Just a search can cost thousands of dollars.
3. The whole process and time consumed in each phase?
How long does it take you to write the application? or to get it awarded?
In the US, it takes about two years, but varies by 'art' category, and how complex the idea is, and how many claims you have.
4. What�s the cost involved in it?
Probably $10K to have legal help. I think the actual filing fees are low.
My dad was a US Patent Examiner. He said that under one percent of patents earn enough money to pay for the filing fees.
Once you are awarded a patent, you must defend it, or you lose your rights to it.
I've had one patent awarded, and have applied for others.
It would not be worth my money to do it. It took me about a month, full time, working with the patent attorney, to get the application written.
During that time, I was not writing code to make the system better.