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=4.8.3&sourceType=module&code=C4TwDgpgBACg9sAhsOUC8UDOwBOBLAOwHMAoEgegCpKoSoaAVACz0ylakQPYIDM4cAW2R4AbtABSAZQAicAMZR5cQYIgFgAGigB3PMCacoOCLwgmC86CigBvAAIAbQgGtYCZHAC+2xLXpQoJCBTMjsbIjywACuiI6OIFAECFDRmBAAJlAARokM4BBS8vhgwEpwGRAAdHSU5CQQAB5gAmXKBNhQ-KgYABQAlABcWLiEROgAfFAA5NmIONMkQA&eslintrc=N4KABGBEBOCuA2BTAzpAXGUEKQHYHsBaWXWZRAE0IDcBDaVDSfAMxcgBpxtIABAFwCeABxQBjaAEth-QiniTc-APQFipclToN0YANqRE0aPmiQAutwC+IK0A&tsconfig=N4KABGBEDGD2C2AHAlgGwKYCcDyiAuysAdgM6QBcYoEEkJemy0eAcgK6qoDCAFutAGsylBm3TgwAXxCSgA

Repro Code

type Potato = string

/** 
 * This is an informative JSDoc comment, with a reference to {@link Potato}, a 
 * type that is actually not used by TypeScript code.
 */
export const foo = (): string => 'bar'

ESLint Config

module.exports = {
  "rules": {
    "no-unused-vars": "off",
    "@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars": ["error"]
  }
}

tsconfig

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "strictNullChecks": true
  }
}

Expected Result

The type Potato is used in JSDoc. I wouldn't expect eslint rules to consider it "unused".

Actual Result

'Potato' is defined but never used. 1:6 - 1:12

Additional Info

No response

Versions