Patents are interesting. It's a deal with the public to divulge your secret, and in return, get exclusive access to profit from it for ~30 years. Early on in the ol DIYBio journey I was a huge fan of open source everything. Can't people see that science and engineering are THE things that will elevate human-kind to a better standard of living? Healthcare, entertainment, travel, etc, all stem from progression in the sciences. So naturally, everything that makes that process faster should be free and open!! I was naive.
That said, I understand very clearly now why someone would want to patent something. A utopian vision for humankind won't be realized in our lifetime, and dare I say, never will be. When you or a team of people bust their asses, sweat, sacrifice money, time, and quality of life, shouldn't you "get" something in return for that?
If there is no incentive to do hard, risky work, I don't know who will do it. Not many scientific aristocrats anymore. After a few years in the drug-discovery field, I can say I don't want to "give" what we've been working on away for free, nor make it open source. Simply being a private company means you have a fiduciary duty to your investors, and the company.
I'm rambling a bit now, didn't mean to turn this into a private vs open conversation. If you're thinking of a patent read as many similar ones in the field as you can. Write as much as you can in succinct sentences as you can, then pay a lawyer $5-$10k for a provisional (which is realistically what it will cost for a good one). But, most of the provisional will be the "real" patent anyway, it's not like it's just simply a crappy first draft you get away with for $100.
Many patents don't make money, so there's that to keep in mind as well. We had many patent lawyers say just keep it a trade-secret until you find a novel chemical scaffold (drug lead) then patent that. Compositions of matter are a lot easier to get in the chemistry field because, you can't argue the 3D arrangement of atoms in a molecule.
I think a healthy mix of DIY with open sharing of information and articles coupled with entrepreneurial "capitalist" drive will make a few decent success stories. We are far from one, but I enjoyed seeing how OpenPCR went from threads on here to a real company. Likewise, I think Ethan Perlstein (who I believe used to post on here) did actually make a FULLY open company/non-profit that is doing highly risky drug discovery and from what I can see, is doing well.
There are always outliers that can make something work that everyone said couldn't.
Do what makes you happy first, then what makes you money, and if it's patentable, go for it. That way when you strike it rich you can put money back into more science research or science startups!