Recently, i read the following article :
If you’re a startup, you should not use React (reflecting on the BSD + patents license).
The example in this article :
Fridgebook Inc.
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.
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.
In the hypothetical case that Facebook blatantly infringes some of your patents with ‘FBfridge’, what can you do?
Well, you cannot sue them immediately. You’re using React on the customer-facing app, remember?
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.
And obviously, you don’t want to interrupt customer service.
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.
My question:
Is the claim in that article accurate, and we have to go away from React
to avoid Facebook laws ?