Notepad++ Trademark Dispute Resolved as Competitor Removes Branding
Following recent user correspondence, the author of the competing project has withdrawn all instances of the Notepad++ trademark from their product and website, ending the infringement claim.
The ongoing trademark dispute involving Notepad++ has been resolved after the author of a competing project and website removed all uses of the Notepad++ trademark from their product, website, and related materials. The project author confirmed that the unauthorized references have been taken down, meaning the infringement is no longer ongoing.
This resolution follows a period of active communication, with the author noting receipt of user emails over the past three days regarding the matter. The clarification reiterates a stance previously addressed on GitHub, distinguishing clearly between the rights granted by the GNU General Public License and the permissions required for trademark usage.
The core of the dispute centres on the legal and reputational separation between code licensing and brand endorsement. While the project is released under the GPL, which permits ports and forks of the codebase, the author maintains that these derivatives cannot be authorised to use the "Notepad++" trademark. The author expressed that users benefiting from the codebase on other operating systems, such as macOS, are welcome, provided the trademark is not misused.
The rationale for prohibiting trademark endorsement is rooted in security and reputation management. The author highlighted the worst-case scenario where a package distributed under the Notepad++ name could contain a backdoor or malware. Furthermore, the original author cannot take responsibility for the long-term maintenance of external projects, meaning any critical issues, crashes, or security vulnerabilities in a fork could damage the reputation of the main Notepad++ brand.
Consequently, the author has made it clear that while ports and forks are absolutely permitted under the open-source license, they cannot be endorsed. This decision ensures that the integrity of the original project is maintained without the risk of associating it with unmanaged external developments. The resolution marks the end of the current conflict, with the competing project now operating without the disputed branding.
