“America’s broken patent system needs major reform to protect innovators and the public. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is announcing a major new boost to its patent work: a half-million dollars in funding from entrepreneur Mark Cuban and game developer Markus ‘Notch’ Persson.” Notch putting his money where his mouth is. Classy guy. Even if a creeper literally just blew up the front of my house.
But $500k is roughly one lawyer-year, including overhead.
A $10M donation would sustain another lawyer indefinitely, and then we’d be talking.
Hypnos,
I agree with you it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what they’re up against. For every attorney on payroll to stop bad patents, there are probably 100-1000 being paid to push them through. It’s still very generous of them to contribute to the EFF and help step up the fight against bad patents, which are overtaking the industry.
Maybe they should fix lawyer rates first.
Hi,
Yes – we should file a class action against all lawyers! The only thing we need is someone willing to take on the case…
-Brendan
I suspect if the money is right real lawyers would gladly give it a go!
Wouldn’t real lawyers give it a go regardless?
Too bad Shakespeare possessed you only for half a second.
Edited 2012-12-20 11:17 UTC
Lawyers are like doctors in the US. They all get paid very well, but some more than others. And schooling is incredibly expensive. Right now, in the US, law schools are graduating more than law firms are hiring. There is a downward pressure on their salaries.