Patenting is not the best answer in certain situations.  For example, sometimes it is more advantageous to maintain an innovation as a trade secret than to seek a patent for that innovation.

This can be particularly true when:

• one’s innovation lends itself to secrecy because it is very difficult for competitors to arrive at the innovation, such as via independent discovery or reverse engineering from one’s marketed products and/or services, and
• one is willing to take appropriate and substantial measures to maintain the innovation’s secrecy, recognizing that the average trade secret loses its secrecy, and thus its trade secret status, within relatively few years.