National Journal's Andrew Noyes has an interesting piece about patent reform that's, alas, behind a pay wall. No worries, though. I'll tell you what's in it. The backdrop is that a fairly major piece of patent rights reform legislation is wending its way through Congress, and the debate can get heated. Should patent rights go to the first documented inventor of a product -- which is how things work now -- or simply the first to get their paperwork in to USPTO? Should there be a cap on the damages that a court can award for patent violations? And would doing so encourage innovation, or do the exact opposite and stymie it? Complicated stuff.

But what's particularly interesting for us here is that U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra was named at Friday's hearing before the House Science Committee as a White House point person responsible for determining the Obama Administration's stance on patent reform. That's noteworthy. Why? Because placing Chopra in the midst of a complex legislative battle points to a policy-oriented, instrumental role in crafting the U.S. approach to technological innovation. Even parsing Obama Administration statements, it's never been exactly clear what the nature of Chopra's post would be. Reading the tea leaves a bit, this development points to a U.S. CTO with a significant and potentially powerful portfolio. (Photo by cytech)