Mozilla browser naming dispute finally ends

Ten months after landing in a fierce trademark dispute with a fellow open-source organisation, the Mozilla Foundation has changed the name of its standalone browser from Firebird to Firefox.

The new browser - meant to be a streamlined version of the present Mozilla browser, which has been criticised because of its size - has gone through three names before even reaching Version 1.0.

The original name ‘Phoenix’ encountered trademark difficulties, so Mozilla renamed it ‘Firebird’, sometimes considered a synonym for the self-immolating, immortal bird.

Then Mozilla got an earful from the Firebird relational database open-source development project. That group was concerned that confusion would result from the name, even though one applied to a database and the other a browser.

Mozilla at first stonewalled but later yielded under pressure from the older Firebird's development community.

But even the concession Mozilla made at that point - to refer to the browser strictly as ‘Mozilla Firebird’ - didn't resolve the issue. A subsequent decision to adopt the name ‘Firefox’ also ran into trouble when Mozilla found that a UK company held the rights to that trademark. Some months passed before Mozilla could reach an agreement to use the mark in the UK. A Mozilla representative declined to disclose the company or the terms of that agreement.

With Firefox, Mozilla hopes to put its trademark difficulties behind it.

"We've learned a lot about choosing names in the past year (more than we would have liked to)," the foundation wrote in an online posting about the name change. "We have been very careful in researching the name to ensure that we will not have any problems down the road. We have begun the process of registering our new trademark with the US Patent and Trademark office."

With the UK situation resolved, Mozilla's latest name choice looks unlikely to invite trademark challenges. Firefox.com is occupied by a work of fiction, in progress, called ‘The Quailish Saga’. Other endeavours using the name include a fireworks manufacturer and a vehicular fire-prevention technology provider.

A firefox is another name for the red panda, a red-furred, endangered mammal related to the giant panda and found in the Himalayas, China and Myanmar.

The existing Firebird open-source project lauded Mozilla on the name change.

"It's all come out very happily," said Ann Harrison, chief technology officer at Firebird organizer IBPhoenix (no relationship to Phoenix Technologies, which presented the initial trademark challenge to Mozilla). "They agreed last fall that they were going to change the name, and it took a little longer than anyone hoped. But they postponed the release (until the UK trademark agreement was reached), which was just spectacular of them, and we are thrilled."

Paul Festa writes for CNET News.com.