I think the reasoning that this will protect them against frivolous lawsuits is pretty poor; you only need a patent grant if you're actually building software. Patent trolls don't build anything so they have no need for patent grants.
Facebook most likely is guarding it for strategic reason. My guess is it will built something like Expo into its Facebook/Messenger app, then it can have its own native app, games store without going through Apple. This is something WeChat already is running called mini-apps.
>Patent trolls don't build anything so they have no need for patent grants.
You'd be surprised. Patent trolls can have all forms, not just a only-suing company. Some company that has failed as a startup, but which holds 1-2 patents might decide to turn into patent-trolling to make a quick back while it dies.
> Some company that has failed as a startup, but which holds 1-2 patents might decide to turn into patent-trolling to make a quick back while it dies.
If the startup is dead it should be trivial to transfer the patents to a separate entity and then sue from that entity, making counter-suits irrelevant.
This only has an affect on companies which are a going concern.
Companies who plan to make litigation part of their strategy can pretty easily just not use React.
This does the most harm to companies who were not planning to come into conflict with Facebook, and then do.
