President Obama nominates former Google exec to lead US Patent Office

President Barack Obama will nominate former Google lawyer Michelle K. Lee to lead the US 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 US industry -- technology or pharmaceuticals -- will set the country's patent agenda.