They also never technically copied/included/distributed the chocobo patch themselves; they linked it from Qhimm's server. Might seem like a small difference, but in court it's a huge one. They never included it with their own for-sale product.
Now, this isn't to say they couldn't/wouldn't use ANY fan-made material. For the most part, they can copy just about anything on a conceptual level with little to no problem. But they cannot use anything literally created by a fan, such as art assets or code, without some sort of license, and most companies don't bother with that. Notable exceptions include SEGA, who hired a fan to rebuild Sonic CD from the ground up with his own engine and another to make a few new sprites, or Valve who regularly hired fans and buys their work, but these companies are just that: exceptions.
If this re-release ends up happening, we will likely only see updates and fixes that they were able to implement themselves, and willing to invest the time and money into adding. If, as has been speculated, this is using an updated version of the old FF7PC engine, the best that we can hope for is that the data files haven't been encrypted and we can still update the assets inside them. I'd be surprised if they even did something as simple as a higher-resolution font.
