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> Now if you turn around and use the author for patent infringement for something else, you lose the patent grant that came with the software, and you are back
by CodeWriter23 9y ago
> Now if you turn around and use the author for patent infringement for something else, you lose the patent grant that came with the software, and you are back to a normal plain old BSD license.
Um, no. Let's say you own patent A and Facebook has granted you rights to patents B and C. Then let's say Facebook infringes your patent A and you sue them. You lose the license to use patents B and C. That's what the PATENTS file says. Read it. What it doesn't say is because Facebook is publicly traded, it has a fiduciary duty to shareholders to defend all of its intellectual property so if you continue using anything covered by a Facebook PATENTS grant, you better be prepared to be sued for patent infringement. There is no implicit patent grant in the BSD license. Nothing in the BSD license shields the user of BSD-licensed software from patent litigation brought by any party.
- pdfernhout 9y agoFrom a lawyer: https://www.elcaminolegal.com/single-post/2016/10/04/Facebook-Reactjs-License https://www.elcaminolegal.com/single-post/2016/10/04/Faceboo... "True, the BSD License does not explicitly state that the licensee receives the right to use the licensed software under the licensor’s patents.* But I’ve never heard any lawyer postulate that that document does not grant a license to fully exploit the licensed software under all of the licensor’s intellectual property. Anyone who pushes that view is thinking too hard."
- CodeWriter23 9y agoThe PATENTS file doesn't explicitly state "litigants may continue to use the IP under the BSD license". What it does explicitly say is "litigants lose the patent rights", which in essence serves to revoke the BSD license. Can't have it both ways.