[0z8]

I don't think there's a loophole there. If you're making, selling, or using technology that is patented by another party, you're infringing, even if you aren't the creator of that technology.

[sonthonax]

What is the threshold for indirect patent infringement? For instance, I don't fear being sued personally for using Microsoft office (which I'm sure infringes on something).

[rhino369]

You can be sued for Office functionality. And you’d probably be the direct infringer.

It’s just an inefficient way to sue people and Microsoft would likely step in.

But it’s common to get sued for using functionality in open source software.

[0z8]

Not a lawyer, but as far as I understand there's no threshold or legal distinction between direct and indirect. It's all direct.

There's the angle of "how much $ can I extract" that comes into play, which is based on damages incurred from infringement. If you're not making money or preventing the patent holder from making money, you're not worth harassing.