Cornell's Legal Information Institute has an excellent reference list for US
<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/patent.html">patent</a> law. 
Getting a regular patent has USPTO fees of ~2000 US$, but you can file a 
provisional patent application for $80, which locks in your patentability for
a year while you try to bring the product to market (so you can afford the $2k
in USPTO fees). Additionally, Nolo.com's <a href="http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/index.cfm">Legal Encyclopedia</a> is another amazing reference for all
aspects of small business life. ;)
 
<p>
Sometimes it's nice to have a day that shows you how dumb you are. I've been
a network/system administrator for 5+ years, and I've seen plenty of USENIX ads,
mentionings, comments, etc., but not once did I ever try to see if the papers
were <a href="http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/">online and useful</a>. Sigh.

<p>