San Francisco - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Daniel Nazer has become the new "Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents." Nazer succeeds former Senior Staff Attorney Julie Samuels and will lead EFF's campaign to reform the patent system and smash patent trolls. Samuels has left EFF to become the new executive director of Engine Advocacy, one of EFF's key partners in defending innovation in the start-up sector.
Entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban funded the title and Nazer's position with a $250,000 donation in 2012. Together, Nazer and Samuels, along with the other members of EFF's Intellectual Property team, have worked tirelessly to reform the patent system on multiple fronts, including in the courts, in Congress, at the White House, and before the US Patent and Trademark Office. On Wednesday, Nazer scored a victory against Personal Audio when a judge agreed to quash the notorious patent troll's subpoena for the names of donors who supported EFF's Save Podcasting campaign.
"This is an exciting time to be working on patent reform," said Nazer, who practiced law at Keker & Van Nest LLP before joining EFF at the start of 2013. "The next few months could see new legislation, important Supreme Court decisions, and action from the president. We need to make sure we get real reform that stops the flood of abusive patent troll litigation. I look forward to building on Julie Samuel's success as the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents."
One of the first items of business will be to push Congress to pass meaningful reform. With the Innovation Act overwhelmingly passing in the House (by a vote of 325 to 91), it is now the Senate's turn. Over 5,000 inventors, entrepreneurs, investors, and concerned citizens have signed EFF's letter urging the Senate to act. EFF will continue to develop TrollingEffects.org, an online clearinghouse of crowd-sourced intelligence on patent trolls launched last year in collaboration with a coalition of organizations and law schools.
"Daniel has been an invaluable colleague, and I know he will head up EFF's patent work with dedication and success," Samuels said. "I look forward to continuing to collaborate with him, and the entire EFF patent team, as we all work toward fixing a broken patent system."
For a high resolution image of Daniel Nazer with formal bio:
https://www.eff.org/about/staff/daniel-nazer
Contact:
Daniel Nazer
Staff Attorney and Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents
Electronic Frontier Foundation
daniel@eff.org
