Possible to get sued for using MIT licensed OSS?

Posted by thereeldeel on Saturday August 23, 2025 @03:12AM
from the self-post dept.

Only Apache 2.0 license guarantees that the licensee doesn't get sued for patent infringement.

Why do majority of open source startups (licensors) use MIT license? Is it that that they want to keep the option of suing, on the basis of patent infringement, open?

So, to be safer no licensee should use code from a MIT licensed project, right?

( 2 comments | on HN )

Re:Possible to get sued for using MIT licensed OSS? by breve on Saturday August 23, 2025 @04:01AM (#44994205)

> Only Apache 2.0 license guarantees that the licensee doesn't get sued for patent infringement.

It can't guarantee that. You could be sued by anyone for patent infringement, regardless of the licence from the copyright holder of the source code.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Possible to get sued for using MIT licensed OSS? by pabs3 on Saturday August 23, 2025 @09:36PM (#45000549)

The MIT license gives you the right "to deal in the Software without restriction", which sounds like an implied patent usage right, at least for patents held by the copyright holders that the software uses.

[ Parent | on HN ]