I would not expect the blockchain to provide you any legal protection. A person really needs to look into their own local government laws and use those to protect themselves the best they can. Kickstarters, in general, leave people open to others with more resources to beat the company to market and claim rights. It's not unheard of for someone to start a Kickstarter on one of the more popular sites and then end in legal troubles themselves for not doing there due dillengece and protecting there invention. Companies have in the past just go to their manufacturers they have in China for produce and manufacture the product out before the kickstart even finishes there the first wave of funding. People always need to take into account their own local laws and hire a lawyer and a team to protect themselves. One should NEVER trust or expect a kick-starting platform to protect them in of itself.
As far as voting bots? That’s not an invention created because of Steemit. There been voting bots around for ages in the gaming world, for contests, for a lot of things that came way before Steemit ever did. I’m not even sure you can legally patent the “idea” of a voting bot. I’m sure there could be things within the voting bot that could hinder other from creating an exact thing and maybe those process could be patent. But I’m no expert on the patent law so I will end my thoughts there.
Seemit won't get involved for the same reason on this as for the same reason as a downvote is vailed simply because “the blockchain allows it.” Besides if Steemit starts trying to provide protection to things that people do not legally own that opens Steemit Inc. up to legal suit. You have to deal with your local governments and protect yourself that way. You got to remember at the end of the day there are such thing patent trolls and they have millions they can toss into a court battle without notice if they think they can get more back out then spent. Steemit is not a patent house with a team of lawyers at their disposal to uphold things.