Former Google lawyer nominated to lead patent office

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'm using the print edition for my quotes.

When the elephants wrestle, the mice get trampled.

Former Google lawyer nominated to lead patent office

Job at core of leadership debate between tech and drug industries

By Nancy Scola October 16

The White House announced Thursday that it will nominate former Google lawyer Michelle K. Lee to lead the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, potentially handing Silicon Valley a key victory and ending a two-year tussle for the agency's leadership​. ... Lee has been managing the 10,000-employee Patent Office day-to-day since being appointed deputy director in January. But efforts to permanently elevate her to director have been stymied by powerful outside groups —particularly pharmaceutical companies, which backed an industry insider for the job. ... The position, which has been vacant for two years, is central to a simmering debate over which U.S. industry — technology or pharmaceuticals — will set the country's patent agenda.
....

Wrangling over who will next head the office has gone on for months, with the battle lines being drawn between the tech industry — which often sees patents as a burden hanging around the neck of innovation — and the pharmaceutical world, where patents protect investments in drug research that can turn into billions of dollars of profit.
....

This summer, some Obama administration officials floated the name of Philip S. Johnson, head of the patent practice at the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. Under withering criticism from the tech industry and their congressional allies, the White House backed away from that nomination.

By appointing Lee, Silicon Valley and President Obama will likely have a champion deep inside the patent apparatus pushing for legislation to address so-called patent trolls — people and firms who secure broad patent portfolios simply so they can sue firms for infringement. Despite broad congressional support, a major patent troll bill fell apart in the Senate in May, shortly before the kickoff of election season. Lee has called abusive litigation "a bug in our system" that "ought to be fixed."
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Nancy Scola is a reporter who covers the intersections of technology and public policy, politics, and governance.

[Demeter]

1. I suppose it's too much to ask for someone WITHOUT a conflict of interest?

Granted, she may not have a conflict of interest, or even stock in Google, but the revolving door is still spinning like a top in DC, with no brakes on the system....

Defeating the patent trolls is a very worthy goal. But not the only one, I would hope!