A while ago I read a clear explanation on the OpenOffice.org website to why the product is branded as OpenOffice.org (OOo) instead of just OpenOffice.

The Why
According to the explanation, the company wanted to brand this suite under the same trademark globally. But in the Netherlands there is a company Open Office, that sells automation solutions based on Linux and open source software. They registered the trademark Open Office and that trademark can not be used by others in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).

Since most Dutch speaking folks live in this area, the OpenOffice suite could loose its Dutch community and wouldn’t be distributable under that same name. So to distribute the suite under the same name globally, the suite was branded under the name OpenOffice.org.

Where is that info now?
For some reason I can’t seem to find this information anywhere. The only mention of this on the OpenOffice.org site I can find is in their FAQ:

The trademark for “OpenOffice” belongs to someone else. Therefore we must use “OpenOffice.org” when referring to this open source project and its software.

Open Office mentions the difference between them, their products and trademark and OOo. It is also very clear that they are not content with OpenOffice.org, since the name is very similar to their’s. Even though they praise the office suite, they make a clear note that the name is confusing.

De Benelux Merkenwet zegt dat gebruik van een “overeenstemmend teken” niet toegestaan is, “indien daardoor de mogelijkheid bestaat dat bij het publiek een associatie wordt gewekt tussen het teken en het merk”. In gewoon Nederlands: er mag geen verwarring optreden. De associatie tussen OpenOffice.org en Open Office lijkt ons meer dan duidelijk.

Translation:

The Benelux trademark law states that the use of a “resembling mark” is not permitted, “if, as a result, the possibility exists that, to the public, an association between the sign and the mark is conceived. In plain Dutch: There can be no confusion. The association between OpenOffice.org and Open Office looks more than clear to us.

According to Open Office, attempts to contact Sun Microsystems and/or OpenOffice.org were poorly answered with replies like “I have to contact our attorneys for that”, after which the silence took over again.

Even though Open Office says all this, they still think OOo is a great product.

The name of the office suite
I still see a lot of people referring to the office suite as Open Office. The developers insist that the office suite is referred to as OpenOffice.org and not OpenOffice or Open Office, because of trademark issues.

Summary
This article is not intended to put OOo in a negative spot. On the contrary I think Microsoft Office is an alternative to OOo (which I would not recommend), and not the other way around. Everyone should switch from MS Office to OOo, if you ask me.

This article is purely to shed some light on the issues concerning the trademark. Not a lot of people know why the suite is not just named Open Office, so I thought I’d share this.

I do find it strange that I can’t find the resources where I read this information. If anyone knows where to find tis information, please let me know.

Related book at Amazon: A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2 for Windows and Linux