Before You File a Bug Report Please Confirm You Have Done The Following...

• I have tried restarting my IDE and the issue persists.
• I have updated to the latest version of the packages.
• I have searched for related issues and found none that matched my issue.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem is not listed.

Playground Link

https://typescript-eslint.io/play/#ts=5.7.2&fileType=.tsx&code=KYDwDg9gTgLgBDAnmYcCiICGBbMAbVAXjgEYAmAZgG4BYAKHoEtdp4kU4BvdLXAuTAGc4AGUYA7ANbAAJgBVkqAL5wAZlAjY4AIgB0AeglgArjG316%2BgFRX6cK1wACeCZNGvZClCtXQ4M4BhMRjxBXTsrfSA&eslintrc=N4KABGBEBOCuA2BTAzpAXGUEKQAIBcBPABxQGNoBLY-AWhXkoDt8B6Jge1tidmUQAmtAG4BDaKgyRE0aB2iRwYAL4hlQA&tsconfig=N4KABGBEDGD2C2AHAlgGwKYCcDyiAuysAdgM6QBcYoEEkJemy0eAcgK6qoDCAFutAGsylBm3QAacDQD00qPFgATDugBK6ErFRsCxClCJL0RdAA88kKQF8QVoA&tokens=false

Repro Code

import { LinkedType } from "./someFile"

/**
 * {@link LinkedType}
 */

ESLint Config

{
  "rules": {
    "@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars": "error"
  }
}

tsconfig

Expected Result

I expected no error because while the import is unused outside of @links I consider this a valid usage of the import. Notably tsc itself recognizes this pattern and does not give an unused variable warning. Switching all links to the much less elegant {@link import("./someFile").LinkedType | LinkedType} seems unideal when it's done many times and introducing a helper type just reintroduces the no-unused-vars error.

Actual Result

The error 'LinkedType' is defined but never used. appears.

Additional Info

In TSDoc I believe the applicable tags are @link, @inheritDoc, and @see. In JSDoc as a whole it applies to any tags that could include a type. I believe that would be @type, @param, @typedef, @returns, @property, @this, @throws, @yields, and synonyms.

Important note: I strongly believe this should only apply to imports. This is because if you happen to write {@link SomeUnusedThing} in the same file SomeUnusedThing is defined it could mask the fact that SomeUnusedThing is, well, unused.