BBB there are opportunities available for new ideas and non disclosure agreements can be used to help maintain confidentiality (of course they have to sign them still tho). It is also possible to secure funding to test ideas before it becomes a financial burden. There are schemes available from Business Link such as Innovation vouchers whereby you can gain expertise to help you. If all that is works there are a wide range of companies which can help develop a new product or help take it to market.
As has been mentioned free advice is available from a wide range of sources and free patent searches can be performed via espacenent[/url] or of course google patents.