Aug. 7--At first glance, Murgesh Navar could be the poster boy for everything that people admire about Silicon Valley. He's a geek's geek who has worked for companies like Silicon Graphics and Liberate Technologies. He's started two companies and has filed for several patents.

His latest patent, however, has made Navar a target of scorn. Navar and his current company, VoloMedia of Sunnyvale, have faced unrelenting criticism since announcing in late July that they had been awarded a patent for podcasting. The ensuing firestorm has demonstrated just how dysfunctional the nation's patent system has become.

As the region of the country that receives far and away the most patents in the U.S., nobody has a bigger stake in fixing this system than Silicon Valley. We all want a system, led by a robust U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that protects inventors' rights while also preventing legal scams.

In an ideal world, the awarding of a patent ought to provide a supreme moment of clarity. If we had an efficient and fair system for protecting intellectual property, if that system was widely trusted and respected, then a patent should mean the recipient was worthy and deserved credit for the invention.

Instead, what happened in the case of VoloMedia is what happens all too often. The patent issued in this case has sown confusion. And perhaps worst of all for Navar, it has made him the focus of suspicion and a backlash in the blogosphere. And if I were

a betting man, I'd wager that the patent is likely to be challenged at some point and be the subject of litigation for years.

When I stopped by the VoloMedia offices Monday, Navar seemed baffled that he had somehow come to be seen as the villain in this. He said he did what any smart inventor would do: get a patent for legal protection and acknowledgment for his hard work and innovation.

"This debate exists in society at large," Navar said. "Do patents close down innovation or do they promote it? I'm a technology person. And I'd never want to do anything that slows innovation."

Let's review what happened. At Liberate, Navar worked on creating software for cable set-top boxes to provide on-demand and interactive services.

Navar says that led him to think about what such a system might look like on your PC instead of the TV.