SACRAMENTO — Julie Samuels, the intellectual property expert with the great job title—the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents—is leaving the Electronic Frontier Foundation to join startup advocate Engine.

Samuels, an Engine board member since the organization was founded in 2011, will serve as the nonprofit’s first executive director and president of its foundation. She leaves EFF this week, having worked at the electronic civil liberties group since 2010.