I went to Iandiorio and Teska last week to see about getting a patent for this idea. They gave me a quote of about $16,000 for a full utility patent, including the costs of drafting claims and presenting it before the PTO board, and $800-1000 for an initial preliminary patent application. They also said it would take about 5 years from the time of file for the patent to be granted because of the speed at which software patents are currently moving through the USPTO.