HELP: Trademarking/Patent Thread

I had an idea for an app but I couldnt program so I started learning. I figured the app would eventually be made before I finished it so I hired a programmer who is helping me. I have a friend who helped sparked the idea and I told them and now that person is trying to make it his own and let me do all the hard work and sweep it from underneath my feet. Please HELP! Any information is valuable to me. This is my first project like this and what I have I do not want to lose.