...
It might take a lawyer of someone experienced in intellectual property rights to say for sure. But here is what I suspect: Qora devs...
I admit that I am not an expert in these matters. I am simply trying to contribute a healthy dose of suspicion to this opportunity.
I appreciate healthy doses of skepticism, but don't you think if this were the case that out of ETH, XMR, and the myriad of other coins signed up for blockchain-as-a-service one of them might have had a lawyer take a look at what they signed up for? Here is fluffypony's description of what is required to get on azure:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkFlarb/comments/4bs33o/monero_added_to_microsoft_azure_blockchain_as_a/d1c92rk(That Reddit link did not work for me.)
Yes, they likely did. Athereum certainly has the money. So I can't say why they would sign something that, on the face of it, appears to forfeit their rights to use (in their own way) the very thing they are creating. So maybe someone with legal experience should be consulted, and I can stop making guesses.
Edit: I tried to correct the spelling of "Ethereum" three times, and it keeps putting the "A" back in.