IBM retains patent crown — Does anyone but me find these numbers a little ludicrous? I thought patents were designed to protect little inventors from big companies stealing their ideas. Now they are used to lock out the little guy.

A day after opening its patent vault to open-source developers, IBM once again topped the list of companies receiving U.S. patents.

In 2004, for the 12th consecutive year, IBM won more patents than any other private sector company, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced Tuesday. The tech giant tallied 3,248 patents last year, well ahead of the runner-up in the top 10 list. In 2003, IBM was granted 3,415 patents.

Matsushita and Canon landed in second and third place with 1,934 and 1,805 patents, respectively, while Hewlett-Packard was fourth with 1,775 patents. Other companies in the Top 10 list: Micron Technology (1,760), Samsung (1,604), Intel (1,601), Hitachi (1,514), Toshiba (1,310) and Sony (1,305).