No, a patent implies that you publicly disclose the knowledge behind your discovery immediately, in exchange for the property of this knowledge being guaranteed†to be yours for a limited time, and its use guaranteed to become free when this time runs out.
The alternative is not to disclose it, with the risk for you that nobody will reverse engineer or discover by themselves, or the risk for everyone else that this knowledge could be lost forever.
†pending approval, and unless successfully challenged in court (where the patent applies).
The alternative is not to disclose it, with the risk for you that nobody will reverse engineer or discover by themselves, or the risk for everyone else that this knowledge could be lost forever.
†pending approval, and unless successfully challenged in court (where the patent applies).