[watty]

It's a real threat, just blown way out of proportion. The second Facebook leverages this patent clause on ANY company, React is dead and everyone will migrate to Preact / VueJS, etc.

This means that the React patent card is a one-time play with HUGE repercussions. Facebook isn't going to target your little company or startup and worrying about it IMO is foolish.

[JoshMnem]

It isn't just React. The PATENTS file is in most of Facebook's repos and it's becoming part of dependencies of dependencies. In the future it could be difficult to remove that software from your stack. (Immutable, Jest, Flow, Hack, etc.)

[bcarroll22]

I think this is exactly what I am saying. There are companies using React that are much larger than anyone who is worried about this, and they don’t seem phased by it. That has to mean something.

[kavok]

These large companies could afford to move off of React if they had to. Smaller companies could be severely impacted by having to move a core product off of React quickly. I don't know why people are using Google as an example of it being safe to use for a 10 person company.

[bcarroll22]

Okay sure, they could “afford” it, but that doesn’t mean they would want to. And if there’s even a feeling on the legal team that some day it might be an issue, why not just use what you’d someday have to switch to and start investing in that ecosystem instead? That would be making a business decision that you know could be flushing years worth of work and investment down the toilet just because.

Besides, isn’t the wording in this clause immediate loss of use? You’d either have to take the time to convert your app to something else before you sue them, which would still take a long time and give them the time to build/perfect your new lethal competitor, or sue them and shut your business down until you converted it to something, which is equally lethal.

[kitd]

It means their lawyers and FB lawyers have come to a backroom agreement.

[moocowtruck]

legal just told me it's ok for us to go ahead with react, some guy named watty on HN just set the lawyers straight