It is very important to get patent protection for your ideas. Although you can do most of this yourself, including prosecuting your patent application "pro se" before the US Patent Office, It is recommended that one plans working with a patent attorney or registered patent application because of the complexities in patent law. One should do an initial search first on:

http://www.uspto.gov/ or http://www.google.com/patents or http://www.patentsonline.com.au/patent/pwhere.html

The US Patent Office has launched a Pilot program called "Peer-to-Patent" which is optional but should speed the process greatly.  http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/peerpriorartpilot/

If you are considering filing your patent in India, you should visit the following sites:

http://www.patentoffice.nic.in/patsea.htm

http://www.indianpatents.org.in/

http://www.pfc.org.in/info/form.htm

Learn some basics on patenting at

http://www.tmpsearchers.com/admin/pt/lesson-1.html

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm

http://www.pat2pdf.org/

Draft Specification format : http://www.tmpsearchers.com/patents/patent-specification-drafting/