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Comment by binaryapparatus | Hacker News Reader

If I understand that license correctly, it is not 'patents that cover react', it is 'any facebook patent, present or future'. Also as explained in the article, it is also about my patents if I have any, in case facebook tries violating them. Far wider than 'react patents'.

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I understand that but here's the scenario I'm talking about:

- I use React for my startup's dashboard

- I sue facebook for violating my startup's patent without removing my react dashboard first

Now, what patents can facebook use to counter sue me that they couldn't sue me with anyway had I not used react?

Facebook won't counter sue you. They don't have to. You just lose your right to use React, due to its license.

I believe you still have a right to use it under copyright law since the license isn't terminated, it's just that potentially you may be infringing some patents, but so far nobody has actually pointed out what those patents would be, so I think it's a valid question.

That's not true: https://code.facebook.com/pages/850928938376556

Facebook can't take away your rights to use React under the BSD license, no matter what you do.

You only lose the patent license, not the copyright license. So it is important to know if facebook actually owns patents covering react and if those patents cover other frameworks as well (e.g. because they cover all virtual DOMs).

As far as is known: None. There don't seem to be any patents.

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