Companies like FB/AMZN/GOOG/MSFT have, effectively, unlimited engineering resources. And money. They simply smash any incoming problems into dust with brute force. Startups do not matter. Hell, few companies other than huge ones matter. "We might have to replace a 10,000 line piece of free software" is nothing to them. If they wage war against another MegaCo, nothing really changes with this license. That legal battle could be fought (and do damage) regardless, they can meaningfully litigate against each other. But the idea this changes anything when going against, say, smaller players? Because it "weakens" their ability to use their (massive) portfolio?
Because Facebook might be "afraid" of losing some software if they file suit? Not really.
So, here's how the real conversation will happen at MegaCo of your choice, should this play out:
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Alice: We want to sue for patent violation against XYZ Co. But we use XYZ Co's software. If we file suit, we'll have to stop using it due to the license.
Some top-level guy with a three-letter title named "Joe": Okay. How big is their company and what software do we use?
Alice: <MegaCo has more money than God so the only meaningful comparison is "cockroach" at best, and the software is in no way something they cannot acquire elsewhere>
Joe: Okay. Assign 50 engineers to just recreate whatever stupid software of theirs we use, in-house. Or buy another version from someone more reliable. Then assign a billion dollars to legal to destroy them.
Alice: Okay.
---
And that's it. They're done. That strategy was all cleared up before lunch. Keep in mind of course Facebook will probably have enough money to litigate you into the ground so long that probably won't even be able to actually tell them to stop using your software, until they've already replaced it completely and also ruined you at the same time.
It turns out when you have effectively unlimited engineering resources and money (to wage legal battles), things like "Use a new virtual DOM library" or "Replace RocksDB" don't matter at all. They can just do it and crush you anyway.
So how the situation is better if both MegaCorp and small startup are using each other opensource code with just the BSD license (with no patent grants)? megacorp can still sue the startup for patent infringment and destroy it.
If you assume that MegaCorp is evil, the startup has no life whatsoever, whatever open source license is picked. If instead assume that MegaCorp is good, the patent grant has a positive effect on the ecosystem.
So, here's how the real conversation will happen at MegaCo of your choice, should this play out:
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Alice: We want to sue for patent violation against XYZ Co. But we use XYZ Co's software. If we file suit, we'll have to stop using it due to the license.
Some top-level guy with a three-letter title named "Joe": Okay. How big is their company and what software do we use?
Alice: <MegaCo has more money than God so the only meaningful comparison is "cockroach" at best, and the software is in no way something they cannot acquire elsewhere>
Joe: Okay. Assign 50 engineers to just recreate whatever stupid software of theirs we use, in-house. Or buy another version from someone more reliable. Then assign a billion dollars to legal to destroy them.
Alice: Okay.
---
And that's it. They're done. That strategy was all cleared up before lunch. Keep in mind of course Facebook will probably have enough money to litigate you into the ground so long that probably won't even be able to actually tell them to stop using your software, until they've already replaced it completely and also ruined you at the same time.
It turns out when you have effectively unlimited engineering resources and money (to wage legal battles), things like "Use a new virtual DOM library" or "Replace RocksDB" don't matter at all. They can just do it and crush you anyway.