You are right about that patent issue, the problem you would have defending a patent like that is similar to one that occurs in software. There has to be some doubt that the idea could work (not obvious). Few judges (most of them couldn't change a tire) would understand what a head guy means by "did or didn't work".There is an easy way to keep our work from being copied. don't sell anything.
Want to be copied by people doing almost no work to do it? Produce CAD CAM software. In many countries, you can buy working copies of most high-end ($30K) CAD CAM for less than $5 for 2 CDs.