The US patent system was supposed to encourage creative activity and investment in R&D but mostly we hear about it these days in terms of patent trolls, rent-seeking, and cartel-forming agreements between corporations. It's important to support the EFF in this action in case this patent system avoids total collapse and continues to operate in its broken state for some more decades.

At the same time, you don't have to file patents, do anything so big as to rouse a patent troll's attention or even be identifiable by the legal system to have a positive and substantial impact on people's lives.