Don Ho confirms the Notepad++ trademark dispute is resolved after the Mac port author removed all unauthorized uses of the Notepad++ name and branding.
Key Takeaways
The Mac port project has removed all Notepad++ trademark references; the infringement is no longer ongoing.
Don Ho welcomes ports and forks under GPL but draws a hard line at endorsing external projects using the Notepad++ trademark.
Core risk cited: a package distributed under the Notepad++ name could contain malware or backdoors, damaging user trust.
Secondary risk: crashes or security vulnerabilities in an unmanaged fork could harm the reputation of the original project.
The Mac port was renamed Nextpad++, described as a nod to Mac history.
Hacker News Comment Review
Consensus is that the original Mac port website looked official enough to imply endorsement, making trademark enforcement clearly justified regardless of GPL freedoms over the code.
Several commenters raised that trademark holders must actively defend their marks or risk abandonment, but this mechanism was notably absent from Don Ho’s own stated reasoning.
A minority of commenters conflated open-source code freedom with brand freedom; the dominant counter-view is that GPL licenses the code, not the project identity.
Notable Comments
@EvanAnderson: Notes that US trademark law requires active defense to avoid abandonment or genericness, and was surprised this wasn’t in Don Ho’s post.
@klustregrif: “OpenSource is about freedom [to] have the code, not freedom to have a projects identity.”
