Today's Guardian has a very good (and, for a piece on intellectual property, unusually accurate) article on the new British Library "inventor in residence", Mark Sheahan. Mark, the inventor of "Squeezeopen" (examples right), will be giving free one-on-one advice to inventors at the library's business and IP centre.
One piece of advice Mark has to offer all would-be patentees is to get professional advice. The IPKat, who knows a little about the potential pitfalls of the IP system, inevitably has to agree wholeheartedly. The costs of getting a patent, if your idea really is worth protecting, are often well worth the extra money involved.