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Still an issue: https://github.com/facebook/graphql/issues/351,

There's a patent: https://www.google.com/patents/US9646028,

and a recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15289676

Waiting for update here https://github.com/facebook/graphql/issues/351

Is the GraphQL spec itself under the BSD+patents clause? Or just their specific implementation? Couldn’t somebody like the Apollo crew create their own implementation if necessary?

The problem is that there actually are patents covering GraphQL. So anybody who writes an alternative GraphQL server implementation is potentially infringing upon those patents.

The issue with the GraphQL spec is that people actually want a patent grant for alternative implementations, but there isn't one.

"This shift naturally raises questions about the rest of Facebook's open source projects. Many of our popular projects will keep the BSD + Patents license for now."

My guess is they go with Apache v2 for GraphQL.