Mark Cuban Funds EFF's New 'Mark Cuban Chair To Eliminate Stupid Patents'

from the go-julie dept

Thu, Dec 20th 2012 3:25am — Mike Masnick

Some fantastic news from EFFland, where Mark Cuban and Markus 'Notch' Persson have agreed to give EFF $250,000 each in order to fund its latest efforts to stop bad patents. This includes naming EFF attorney Julie Samuels "The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents." This is a job title that only a few people deserve and, knowing Julie, she's one of them. Over the years, EFF has done some really great work on patents, but they've often seemed like a backburner issue compared to other things -- so we're excited to see what comes next.

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Filed Under: julie samuels, notch, patent trolls. mark cuban, patents

18 Comments

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Zakida Paul (profile), 20 Dec 2012 @ 3:34am

How about a chair to eliminate stupid people, or is that what tomorrow is for?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 5:06am

I honestly read that as "Stupid Parents" and thought "As much as that's a needed service, I'm not sure it falls in the EFF's realm." =P
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Ninja (profile), 20 Dec 2012 @ 5:17am

It still doesn't solve the real problem: the patent system is broken.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 5:25am

Attempting to stop stupid patents is honorable and all but it is like trying to stop the tide.

Stupid patents come in, stupid patents go out, you can't explain that.
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Joe, 20 Dec 2012 @ 6:00am

Famous Quotes - Past and Present
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." -Sir Isaac Newton

and

"The sight seeing ride ends here." -Patent Maximalists
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Slacker, 20 Dec 2012 @ 6:47am

At first I imagined Mark Ruban smashing a special chair over a pile of stupid patents. Time to give Patent trolls the People's Elbow. Jabronies.
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FauxReal (profile), 20 Dec 2012 @ 7:15am

Wow Notch can afford to donate $250k for a cause? I knew he was making bank off of Minecraft but wow. I guess I'm not so surprised to find out there was a Minecon. I'm just woefully out of touch.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 7:15am

Re:
Trust me, if there was a chair for eliminating stupid people, I'd be the first one in it!
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Pixelation, 20 Dec 2012 @ 7:33am

My first thought was, why is Mark Cuban fund a chair made by the EFF called "The Mark Cuban Chair"? Is it a Comfy Chair?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 8:57am

Stupid Laws
I applaud the fight against the "stupid centric" Govt.

Where is the fund to eliminate stupid laws that the idiot crew in DC pass on to us while exempting themselves from said laws?
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azuravian (profile), 20 Dec 2012 @ 9:30am

Re:
Not only that, but he can afford to donate the 3 million he got in dividends for 2011 to his employees.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/02/notch-gives-3-million-mojang-dividend-to-employees/
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 10:18am

Apple vs Samsung
Samsung gains win as Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent rejected.

The U.S. patent office has ruled that Apple's (AAPL) "pinch-to-zoom" patent shouldn't have been granted, boosting Samsung (SSNLF.PK) in its attempt to overturn a $1.05B U.S. jury verdict against it in its global IP war with Apple. The patent was one of six that Samsung was ruled to have breached in the companies' summer trial and is the second of those six to have been preliminarily struck down.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 10:21am

Re: Apple vs Samsung
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1074801-wall-street-breakfast-must-know-news?source=email_the_daily_ dispatch&ifp=0
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2012 @ 12:38pm

Re:
But how does it compare to the Clint Eastwood Chair???

That's what people really want to know...
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Adrian Lopez, 20 Dec 2012 @ 5:15pm

EFF's approach
EFF wants to reduce the term of software patents to 5 years instead of abolishing them altogether. This would serve to validate software patents and would leave room for congress to expand them again, perhaps even beyond their present duration.
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Pixelation, 20 Dec 2012 @ 9:29pm

Re: Re:
You gotta ask your self one thing. Do I feel comfy? Well do ya punk?
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staff, 21 Dec 2012 @ 8:57am

more dissembling by Masnick
The word on the street is EFF and Masnick are puppets of large patent infringers. Cuban himself has enforced patents. Apparently it's OK for him to, but not anyone else??
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2012 @ 8:44pm

Re:
That chair got thrown away by Ballmer
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