[tytso]

Furthermore, suppose you're some company like, say, IBM which figured out some way to say, safely double the energy density and recharge cycles of Lithium Ion batteries, which you have patented. Let's also assume that you are shipping some critical problem which is dependent on React. Facebook could now freely use your patented idea, and violating it left, right, and center, and if you try to sue them for violating that patent, you're completely f*cked.

So Facebook's idea works fine if you believe that Patents as a Thing are bad (all patents, not just software patents), and should not be asserted under any circumstances, and it's fine for Facebook to arbitrarily violate any patent of any company who has become dependent on React.

[skrebbel]

> and if you try to sue them for violating that patent, you're completely f*cked.

No, if you try to sue them for violating that patent, they can try to sue you for using React - if they actually have valid patents that cover React, that is. I doubt IBM's lawyers are breaking a sweat.

Why do you keep spreading FUD about this stuff even after Facebook withdraws the license?

[madeofpalk]

Furthermore, this is all untested in the courts. Contracts and laws aren't really worth much until they're tested in courts. It's arguable that giving someone a license to use your code also gives them a license to use the patents that code uses. Kind of like how you're not infringing on iPhone patents if you buy and use an iPhone.

[CodeWriter23]

You might want to read the link below, then go re-read the now deleted PATENTS grant for React.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15093633

[tzs]

> Facebook could now freely use your patented idea, and violating it left, right, and center, and if you try to sue them for violating that patent, you're completely fcked.

Maybe, maybe not. You suing them over your patent would terminate you patent* license from Facebook, but not your copyright license. Whether that fucks you or not depends on whether or not you actually NEED a patent license from Facebook.

As far as I know, no one has actually found a Facebook patent that covers React.

[ergo14]

There is - its been posted multiple times https://www.google.com/patents/US20170221242.

[tzs]

Interesting. If that patent issues, is it going to be a problem for any React alternatives, or is what is described there unique to React?

Also, I'm curious. When did React start using the techniques covered in that patent application?

[sangnoir]

> As far as I know, no one has actually found a Facebook patent that covers React

This would make Reacts PATENTS file a bluff (nothing to grant or revoke). I don't think many companies would be eager to base decisions on that legal theory.