The intellectual property policy parlor game of guessing who the next Patent and Trademark Office director will be has zeroed in on several names in recent months -- Q. Todd Dickinson, who already ran the agency under former President Bill Clinton; David Kappos, who is vice president and assistant general counsel for IP at IBM; and Jim Pooley, a Silicon Valley lawyer who was recently nominated to become deputy director of the World Intellectual Property Organization. But with Pooley effectively out of the mix, another name has bubbled to the surface: Doug Luftman, associate general counsel for Sunnyvale, Calif. smartphone manufacturer Palm.

Luftman has at least one cheerleader in Congress, Rep. Michael Honda, D-Calif, vice-chair of the House Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, who wrote to the White House director of presidential personnel recommending him for the job. Although the letter was not made public, a spokesman for Honda said his boss believes Luftman's key asset "is his knowledge of the patent process from idea to product." Luftman has followed the product development process from the industry viewpoint at Palm and before that as general counsel of Caspian Networks; at CIENA Corp., and at Intel. He also worked for Fenwick & West's Silicon Valley office. Honda's aide said Luftman "recognizes the disarray" of the PTO and has management experience that could help.