united-states intellectual-property software licensing patents
As a startup, Should we avoid using React (reflecting on the BSD + patents license)
<p>Recently, i read the following article :</p>

<p><a href="https://medium.com/@raulk/if-youre-a-startup-you-should-not-use-react-reflecting-on-the-bsd-patents-license-b049d4a67dd2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">If you’re a startup, you should not use React (reflecting on the BSD + patents license)</a>.</p>

<hr>

<p>The example in this article :</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Fridgebook Inc.</p>
  
  <p>For the sake of illustration, say you’re a fridge company “Fridgebook
  Inc.” who markets intelligent fridges. Your fridges have a screen that
  runs your proprietary application, and you use React for the UI.</p>
  
  <p>Overnight, you hear that Facebook decides to move into the fridge
  industry, and they’ve announced the worldwide launch of their new
  product: “FBfridge”, in just 1 week.</p>
  
  <p>In the hypothetical case that Facebook blatantly infringes some of
  your patents with ‘FBfridge’, what can you do?</p>
  
  <p>Well, you cannot sue them immediately. You’re using React on the
  customer-facing app, remember?</p>
  
  <p>If you sue them before migrating to something else (like vue.js), you
  will immediately lose the license grant for React, and suddenly you’re
  in breach yourself, fighting against a potential lawsuit for illegal
  use of software, from an almost-$500-billion company, all by yourself.</p>
  
  <p>And obviously, you don’t want to interrupt customer service.</p>
  
  <p>So if you want to sue them, or at least hold any leverage for doing
  so, you will need to find a solution to migrate away from React in
  record time.</p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<p>My question:</p>

<p><strong>Is the claim in that article accurate, and we have to go away from <code>React</code> to avoid Facebook laws ?</strong></p>

<p>Adding to what Martin Bonner said: If you are a startup, and your grand plan is to be bought by a big company for a lot of money, and that big company thinks your use of React makes it risky to buy you, then you will lose out. It doesn't matter whether there <em>is</em> a risk, what matters is whether a potential buyer <em>believes</em> there is a risk. </p>

<p>And if that is your plan, then you need to re-read Martin's answer from the point of view of a bigger company. You may not have any valuable patents, but that bigger company might. If I have an LLC with no money, then I can say "I don't care if Facebook sues me for 100 millions, I'll just let the LLC go bankrupt and start another one". If the company is worth millions or more, then the risk is much higher. </p>

<p><em>If</em> you hold patents which you can imagine Facebook violating, then yes, you really need to avoid using React.</p>

<p>The BSD + patents license says that if you sue Facebook for patent violation, that removes the license FB granted you to use <em>their</em> patents in React.</p>

<p>There is actually another necessary condition before you need to move away from React: you have to believe that it would be uneconomic for your company to defend a patent infringement case from FB.  This is very likely; even if you could win in the end, the opportunity costs of the management time involved in defending such a case would be huge.  However the flip side is that <em>even if FB violated your patents</em> it might not be worth suing them - patent litigation is notoriously unpredictable.  If you don't think you would sue them, there is less point avoiding React (not "no point", because the mere fact you are using React might make them more like to take the risk and violate your patent.)</p>
