Trademark violation: Fake Notepad++ for Mac

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringement/

by maxloh • 3 months ago

634 297 3 months ago

notepad-plus-plus.org

omblivion• 3 months ago

It is astonishing how blatant people can be. How do they imagine they won't be immediately called out?

Hopefully the domain and the app on the app store gets taken down soon.

odie55333• 3 months ago

He probably didn't know it was trademarked, and probably didn't think people would get upset, and he's now trying to make it right. Why assume malice on this guy?

efilife7• 3 months ago

I've shipped fintech and risk products at Moody's, BNY, AxiomSL, Amex and many more. I've built platforms, designed user experiences, assembled portfolio analytics and worked on professional services teams.

He seems to have enough experience to know how trademarks work

layer83• 3 months ago

GP isn’t assuming malice, they are wondering how someone can be so foolish or naive.

tristor• 3 months ago

He probably didn't know it was trademarked

The fact it's trademarked provides the original project more legal protections, but regardless of whether or not a trademark is registered it's clearly unethical to use another project's name without prior permission. If it weren't a trademark violation, it'd still be wrong, so the knowledge of whether or not it was registered as a trademark is basically irrelevant.

kube-system8• 3 months ago

Someone who understands trademark law knows that it doesn't even matter whether it is a registered trademark... because it is well known enough to clearly be an unregistered trademark by default.

karel-3d• 3 months ago

The app seems to be entirely vibe-coded. ("multi-agent AI development workflows are what make a one-person project at this scale practical")

However the author says he will "move from the branding".

odie55333• 3 months ago

I suspect we will not see a non-vibe-coded app again. I think such days are in the past now.

dzhiurgis2• 3 months ago

I hope he calls it something like Notepad+++

canucker2016• 3 months ago

typically trademark names that can be mistaken for another trademark in the same category are not allowed.

HelloUsername• 3 months ago

Related discussions:

"Notepad++ for Mac – Independent community port" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47916964 27-apr-2026 85 comments

"Notepad++ Code Editor Comes to Mac After 20-Year Wait" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47947740 29-apr-2026 36 comments

FinnKuhn3• 3 months ago

Using the trademark is one thing. The authors brazen reaction another: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issue...

472828476• 3 months ago

To me he sounds inexperienced/naive and a little scared (and thus “defensive”) but well-intentioned. His response makes me believe that he didn’t do it for fame, to deceive, or other selfish reasons.

AureliusMA3• 3 months ago

I don't believe that he is naive. It looks like he wants to use the Notepad++ brand authority to capture the notepad++ macos market (which is big!) Thus he is infringing on a trademark for his own benefit.

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

A malicious actor would be happy to be publicly labeled inexperienced/naive.

LeCompteSftware6• 3 months ago

The smarmy dishonesty about "expanding the Notepad++ brand" actually is selfish and ill-intentioned. Perhaps he is too young and naive to fully understand that he is being parasitic. But naivety is a well-travelled path towards malice.

Regardless, he absolutely deserves to be shamed on GitHub for this. I don't like the online culture of public shame and sandbagging - I think this GitHub thread should be closed now that it's viral - but sometimes people actually do things they should be ashamed of. This needs to be a tough lesson.

pndy3• 3 months ago

I don't wanna be rude but it looks like this guy just arrived on the Internet this year - around March-April and it doesn't seem like he has any prior activity. He just decided to roll this Notepad++ for macOS and that's it

Also, his medium avatar looks awfully generated.

cryptonym• 3 months ago

First step would be taking down the website, second step is an apology, third step is bringing back online with new branding and eventually a final word to thank them, share the link and say they remain open to criticism.

It's not rocket science. Pretty sure even his LLM would give that strategy and implement it without burning too many tokens.

More than inexperienced, either he really can't read a room or he knows very well what he is doing.

freehorse• 3 months ago

To me it seems like a "idgaf" mentality, and trying to get as much and push as far as he can. Never in his replies he shows any sign of admitting that he should not have put the notepad++ name like this, that it looked like an actual endorsement and this was wrong. He just finally (after putting repeated pressure) accepts to change the branding. I don't understand why some people like him do that and how.

I assume it is the "fake it till you make it" mentality, like "fake the endorsement until they actually endorse your project". Clearly doesn't work like this, but if this mentality has gotten you far, why not try it here too?

You can be inexperienced and naive, and at the same time understand when you make a mistake. Being "inexperienced" because you actively refuse to learn from what people tell you that you do wrong is not inexperience anymore.

efilife7• 3 months ago

I've shipped fintech and risk products at Moody's, BNY, AxiomSL, Amex and many more. I've built platforms, designed user experiences, assembled portfolio analytics and worked on professional services teams.

No inexperience here. It is malice

lukan13• 3 months ago

He was told by the original author to not use the name for his project 5 days ago. 3 days ago he wrote "Guys, all I wanted to do is to make Notepad++ available on mac and keep it open and free. I'm talking to Don. I really hope he will be ok with the name. It actually expands notepad++ brand to mac."

Already ignoring the authors wishes. He said clearly it is not OK and wants the name changed. That's it - but he keeps ignoring it.

I fail to see good intentions here.

whateverboat2• 3 months ago

Product manager in software for 10 years. I cannot believe the inexperienced defense.

tsukurimashou• 3 months ago

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

gilrain• 3 months ago

His response makes me believe …

I’d pay more attention to his behavior.

koiueo4• 3 months ago

Naive my ass.

From the fork's authors page

Andrey Letov is a New York product leader and software engineer.

And then a long list of professional achievements follows.

He knows exactly what he's doing

taco_emoji• 3 months ago

All of his responses are moronic misreadings of NP++'s actual author's comments, which lead me to believe that he is acting entirely in bad faith.

LeCompteSftware6• 3 months ago

"I will give you one week to change the name."

"No, I'm not going to do that."

"Okay fine, I'll report you to Cloudflare now."

"BROOOOOOOO you said you'd give me a week?!?!"

ssl-36• 3 months ago

It looks like it went more like this:

"Stop using my trademark." [1]

"OK, give me a couple of weeks. I was intending to expand your brand." [2]

"No. I've reported this to your CDN." [3]

---

[1]: This is the correct way to handle things.

[2]: This has the appearance of being evidence of -deliberate- fuckery.

[3]: This kind of action is the inevitable result of deliberate fuckery.

as1mov• 3 months ago

Funny how the vibe-coding speed grinds to 0 the moment people catch on to their bullshit. A name change requires a week but shitting out 200 commits with Claude takes barely a month.

ares6232• 3 months ago

We have found the limits of agentic engineering. Changing a logo on a website apparently takes weeks.

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

The disclaimer he put up on the website is comical. "In coordination with [original author], I will be _evolving the brand_ to …"

bayindirh• 3 months ago

Smells like AI slop past its expiration date, to be honest.

testfrequency• 3 months ago

I honestly chuckled reading this “in coordination” comment.

Imagine being slapped across the face, and instead of saying you were slapped, you say…”in coordination with the back of their left hand”.

This entire thread actually makes me so angry for the N++ team. He was being so kind in his wording and was clearly being taken advantage of.

“I’m in NYC you have my WhatsApp” wtf does that even mean…you eat chopped cheese and have a cell phone?

pjc502• 3 months ago

AI means never having to ask permission. Or forgiveness, it seems.

2ndorderthought• 3 months ago

See all you do is take the repo and put it into the AI and then ask the AI to regenerate it to another directory. Et Voila the AI generated it and the person didn't do anything illegal.

Okay that might not be okay. So you take screen shots, release notes and feed that to the AI. Now it's fine.

Even better is if you can get the data trained into the model! Because then it's totally different right?

1 shotting companies is the future and that's why so many companies are accelerating ai by giving all their code and plans to the leading ai providers for money.

wartywhoa232• 3 months ago

Asking? Inessential!

bartread4• 3 months ago

I wanted is to bring Notepad++ to mac and allow people to find Mac version of Notepad++ quickly and use it.

Seems he’s ignorant of the ecosystem too (or possibly disingenuous, or maybe doesn’t realise he’s done something wrong or why). Notepad++ runs perfectly on macOS under Wine. I’ve been using it that way for two or three years now. Wasn’t a struggle to set up either: I simply ran the installer as if I was running Windows and then it #justworked.

paulnpace2• 3 months ago

Indeed, and in general. Popular, well supported open source project around for decades not available in POSIX, somehow?

In Linux, the only things I don't have with Wine are whatever the other clipboard is that highlighting text gets filled with and access to network shares. Such nothingburgers that I've never spent real time to figure out if there's a solution.

doginasuit4• 3 months ago

That response doesn't seem brazen. It sounds like they had a deeply mistaken understanding of what an open source license grants and believed it would be fine to use the name and branding as well as the code. Unless I missed it, it sounds like they are changing how their site communicates its relationship to the original source.

What I find baffling about that conversation are the people having their LLMs weigh in on what the author should have done. Verbal takedown by LLM is a new level of cringe.

Edit: There are some replies I hadn't seen, their confusion and request for patience sounds like they still don't fully appreciate their mistake.

Semaphor• 3 months ago

It sounds brazen and incredibly entitled. The LLM response seems fitting for a vibe coded project with a vibe brain author.

nerdjon• 3 months ago

I am on the fence about using an LLM to respond to situations like this, particularly if it is a screenshot and it is obvious what they are doing.

It is snarky and cringe, but also goes to show how poorly the decision making is by the author that even an LLM is pointing out how badly you are handling this.

Especially when this is clearly a vibe coded project.

efilife7• 3 months ago

Oh what the hell. This is the vibe coder mentality. Grift, as far as it goes

rpigab• 3 months ago

This reaction is normal, aletik could have been the next Jia Tan, for all we know, and could have distributed "fake notepad++ for Mac" binaries with backdoors in them to thousand of Mac users who think it is an officially n++-endorsed project when it is not, created by someone who is unknown.

Aletik can fork n++ and find a name for it, but can't use the brand and logo, and should be stopped by all means necessary if he does not comply ASAP. Tech bloggers should know better than to promote this without checking.

PythagoRascal• 3 months ago

"The author" in above comment refers to the author of the port. So, yes, thats what they meant.

doginasuit4• 3 months ago

Tech bloggers should know better than to promote this without checking.

Agreed, and it also seems unlikely this will be their takeaway. They now get to report on the drama which will probably get more clicks.

stackghost• 3 months ago

Tech bloggers should know better than to promote this without checking.

Tech bloggers are just LLMs these days

tardedmeme5• 3 months ago

If you compiled notepad++ for Mac how should you make it available on the internet so people with Macs can download notepad++? Don't tell me you have to call it something else because that's absolutely insane, even if the law agrees.

ruszki• 3 months ago

Those very bad takes to push to merge a completely new codebase into Notepad++ project very much seems like a Jia Tan event. However, it’s probably not, because how bad they are. Nobody will be convinced with something like this, ever. One for sure, they don’t seem organic at all. They look like exactly how controlled political discourses are. Either there is a hit piece somewhere, or the comments are not genuine at all.

throwaway20373• 3 months ago

    > The authors brazen reaction another

I want to clarify. Are you implying that Don Ho (donho) or Andrey Letov (aletik) is having the "brazen reaction"? From your link, I found aletik's first comment here: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issue...

When I first read about the MacOS port from HN, I also assumed it was blessed by Don Ho. I was fooled by the new website. Now that I know it was not coordinated, it looks weird (even creepy/uncanny valley'ish) in hindsight, especially using all the same icons and branding, and including Don Ho on the author page.

mg7946132• 3 months ago

The brazen part is Andrey Letov pretending to not understand.

_0xdd• 3 months ago

What's amazing to me is how I was downvoted into oblivion on a few different subreddits and forums for expressing concern about the vibe-coded nature of the project and that the author of the Mac port appeared to be using the Notepad++ name/branding without any official blessing from the project.

donkers• 3 months ago

There's a lot of people even in here who don't seem to get it, who call it a "simple" task to do the port and are confused why this is a bad thing at all. A lot of people in the industry (and perhaps everywhere) have a hard time with ethics and doing the right thing.

infecto2• 3 months ago

In case anyone else was confused. The author of this fork replied to some trademark discussion with a “fuck trademarks” response. He edited/deleted it but you can still see it in some of the quoted replies.

Fork author is either a young kid or clueless.

altairprime• 3 months ago

Or a tech founder (gestures at Ubercab)

Cieric3• 3 months ago

The only place I see that is from a user "LiEnby" not "aletik", and none of aletik's existing messages are edited. All replies I see with the message are also to LiEnby. I don't agree with aletik's slow response in any way, but I don't think your claim is correct either. Do you have anything to prove that this was said by aletik?

efilife7• 3 months ago

It was not him as far as I can tell. It was this guy: https://github.com/nukeop that showed examples of the trademark law being stupid sometimes, and this guy: https://github.com/LiEnby that said "fuck trademarks"

The author of the "rewrite" didn't seem to say this

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

FFS. I installed it after seeing it here on HN and on MacRumors. Terrible failure on my part but MacRumors should offer an apology for endorsing this fake release.

nguyenkien• 3 months ago

First thing I do is check official notepad++ website. I didn't see anything, that what's stop me.

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

Smart. Good on you for noticing it wasn’t the real website.

AureliusMA3• 3 months ago

This is such a blow for MacRumors... I won't be taking them seriously anymore after this. They are complicit.

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

Me neither. So far all I see is a puny "[Updated]" title on the article with no apology or indication of what was updated.

odie55333• 3 months ago

The National Enquirer publishing rumors and gossip?! I'll never read them again!

dewey2• 3 months ago

A website that's specialized into running unconfirmed rumors for clicks, shocking!

layer83• 3 months ago

You can’t take MacRumors seriously in that sense in general, they often distort their sources and barely do any journalistic due diligence. They are serviceable as a news feed for the sources they link to, and for the rumored-upcoming-features summary listicles.

ezfe• 3 months ago

9to5mac writes clickbait headlines but MacRumors violates journalistic integrity. They always have been worse, there’s nothing new.

j1elo• 3 months ago

I mean, the website is called "Rumors", so their reliability is in compliance with the letter of the contract :-)

0x000xca0xfe• 3 months ago

Same with heise online, Germany's largest IT news site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260430011533/https://www.heise...

krzyzanowskim• 3 months ago

becase there is only one Notepad.exe https://notepadexe.com on the mac

RedShift1• 3 months ago

Is notepad++ a registered trademark?

AureliusMA3• 3 months ago

Yes

voidUpdate3• 3 months ago

yes https://data.inpi.fr/marques/FR5133202

FinnKuhn3• 3 months ago

So, it's a French trademark. Not a lawyer, but from what I remember trademarks need to be registered in every region you want to enforce them in separately.

If the author of "Notepad++ for Mac" doesn't happen to be French as well, is there anything (legally) preventing them from using this trademark?

dzhiurgis2• 3 months ago

How does it work when actual source license is GPL?

x187463• 3 months ago

Just needs to update the site to make it clear it's an independent port of the project. Then, modify the name to MacPad++ or something. Good to go.

LeCompteSftware6• 3 months ago

To be clear in the GitHub thread Don Ho repeatedly encouraged him to do this, and said it was cool that he was trying to bring Notepad++ to Mac! Just don't make it look like Don Ho and the rest of the team is responsible for any quality issues. Don't use the logo!

"Objective-Notepad" was right there.

ErroneousBosh• 3 months ago

"Objective-Notepad" was right there.

It still is. There's only a handful of hits on Google for that, too.

You should do it. I'd do it if I had a Mac and used Notepad++ ;-)

tencentshill2• 3 months ago

TextEdit++ is a lot more fitting anyways.

kelvinjps10• 3 months ago

By the name the domain has probably use another domain too

andai• 3 months ago

Not to be confused with

https://notepadexe.com/

hmokiguess• 3 months ago

Oh cool, this one reminded me of https://www.codeedit.app/ I like the lightweight take!

gverrilla• 3 months ago

It's the Trump pattern: break all rules to benefit yourself until someone or something stops you. USA has not yet reached this clarity.

ares6232• 3 months ago

(posting my comment from the other thread) Hilarious. How long does it take to vibecode the requests to change the logo and name. Vibecoding a port from scratch is super fast as long as you don't need permission huh. Then when the adults ask you to not infringe on copyright, it's all "please be patient guys. I am boy. Give me one week pls."

Bender• 3 months ago

A similar thing happened for OTR recently. [1] Is the AI naming the vibe coded projects? Many of these are getting submitted to /newest

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47997919

KORraN• 3 months ago

Original announcement and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47916964

albertzeyer• 3 months ago

Why not just getting the changes/extensions upstream, welcome the Mac dev on the team, and make it an official port?

lukan13• 3 months ago

Maybe there are trust issues now? I certainly would refuse to work with someone who comes and steals my brand, pretends I am on board with this and refuses to comply even after being called out.

f3408fh8• 3 months ago

You don’t adopt an unofficial fork just because it exists. Showing up with a clone isn’t the same as meeting the standards required to be part of the original project

dewey2• 3 months ago

That might have been a possibility if brought forward in an open and reasonable way, a bit harder to trust someone once they just vibe adopted the project someone was working on for decades and didn't seen an issue with that. Also "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

LeCompteSftware6• 3 months ago

Nobody else has pointed this out, but a MacOS port of Notepad++ actually goes against some of the branding. Notepad++ very much markets itself as a lightweight and speedy thing that uses the low-level Win32 API directly. It is not just a native application, it is a Windows-native application. Porting it to macOS requires a level of care and expertise which is tantamount to changing the entire organization.

I am sure the Notepad++ team is perfectly fine focusing on Windows expertise and has no interest in bringing in the overhead of another OS. If a serious macOS expert wants to do that, they can fork the project with a different name.

BTW look at the GitHub issues. This is a lazy developer creating a slop project. It would be stupid to bring this incompetent and dishonest person on board.

tencentshill2• 3 months ago

The "author" couldn't tell you the why behind any of the original design decisions. It's vibecoded, they never had to know. They would be a terrible teammate with no actual understanding of the project.

Fokamul2• 3 months ago

Author of this Mac port has 1 month old online presence.

i_think_so3• 3 months ago

Plenty of very thoughtful comments so far about copyright, community, developers who might not speak English as a first language, .... Very few people mentioning the obvious:

MALICIOUS BINARY!

Did we learn nothing from the xz malware fiasco? One update quietly pushed out at night while nobody's paying attention and boom.

temporallobe• 3 months ago

I wasn’t even aware a native port was available for Mac. I tried it with Wine and it was awful. These days my colleagues and I are using Zed as the de facto high-performance text editor.

yokoprime• 3 months ago

I would not trust this "Notepad++ for Mac" at all. The author of the "port", aka Vibe Coded slop, Andrey Letov has absolutely zero commits anywhere before he suddenly vibes up this mac release. He brands it as an official Notepad++ version, is slimy in the way he interacts with the Notepad++ team etc. I would not be surprised if theres some sort of back door or malware attack vector embedded in this software. Stay away! Remember the XZ Utils backdoor!

amiga386• 3 months ago

Heck, even remember that state-level actors abused a flaw in NPP's update mechanism and hijacked NPP's hosting provider to deliver malware to specific targets: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/hijacked-incident-info-up...

There are a lot of NPP users out there, and probably the most important thing, given that they use it to edit all their files, is that they can trust the software. Some rando out of nowhere saying they've written "NPP for Mac" is red flag central.

ButlerianJihad• 3 months ago

So would you say that the Notepad++ author got Letov with a technicality?

kaiwn• 3 months ago

This is so sloppy I really doubt this is an attempt at malware. It’s more likely the author is, uh, “socially unaware”.

yahyabahhaoui• 3 months ago

whats the point on doing that? is it a malware or some kind of trojan?

kjs33• 3 months ago

Not that that isn't a possibility (now muted), but you don't have to speculate on a grand conspiracy when 'just an asshole' will suffice.

redbell• 3 months ago

Visiting the referenced website (https://notepad-plus-plus-mac.org/), the first thing I see is a big, green Announcement that says:

  In coordination with Don Ho, the creator of the original Notepad++, I'll be evolving the branding of the macOS version so it stands on its own while respecting its lineage. These updates, such as a new logo, a refined name, and likely a new domain will ship with version 1.0.6 in the coming days. Continuity for existing users is a priority, and I'll make the transition as seamless as I can. Thank you for your patience.

Did Don Ho really coordinated with this author?! If no then why he lies and he knows he is lying? Where this path leads to?! Really weird times to be alive!!

sleepybrett2• 3 months ago

coordination must mean, 'i've been threatened legally by'

Fokamul2• 3 months ago

Anyone from Moody's, BNY, AxiomSL, Amex. Who knew "Andrey Letov" and can contact him on his personal email/phone to verify?

Author of Mac notepad github repo claims he worked there, https://aletik.me/ (1 month old personal website), he also has new Github and new Linkedin. https://github.com/aletik

If someone has reverse image search platform, use his github profile picture. There is another Linkedin profile, with same guy, but slightly different picture.

throwaway20373• 3 months ago

The latest issue comment from Don Ho is lookin' fiery! I love me some open source drama...

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issue...

    > Every day that website remains active, you are in further violation of the law. I cannot authorize a "week or two" of continued trademark infringement.
    > Please take down the domain immediately so you can focus on your rebranding efforts without legal interference. If the site is not removed, I will have no choice but to escalate the takedown request.

doctorpangloss2• 3 months ago

okay, but wouldn't the best solution be to simply release an official macOS port? nowadays it would be cheaper than paying a lawyer to write a letter haha

b3ing• 3 months ago

He might not have a Mac to test it on or care to code it. It’s open source, they work on what they want after all they don’t get paid. If he was donated a Mac and enough money in sure he might look into it

throwaway20373• 3 months ago

Surely, this is a troll reply, but it made me think about this Lord of Rings meme/quote:

    > One does not simply walk into Mordor

pibaker• 3 months ago

Good lord, why are users of free software always act so entitled towards developers they have paid not a single cent to?

Just "simply" port your native GUI application to a completely different platform and make sure everything works as intended. No biggie! At least donate a couple hundred dollars to the developer so he can afford to run a couple of Claudes before you start asking for things.

m-p-3• 3 months ago

But by doing that he would need to maintain more code, which is unreasonable if it isn't something he wants.

And someone using the Notepad++ brand without his consent isn't cool, as if something goes wrong, people might assume that the original Notepad++ author is behind it, tarnishing his reputation.

If he doesn't want to make a macOS version that's on him, other people can fork it and make their own versions if they want, just make it obvious it's not from the original dev.

necovek• 3 months ago

I wonder if this counts as sufficient defense of the trademark according to the trademark protection laws: if one does not guard a trademark, they run the risk of losing it.

Unfortunately, if you care about trademark or just simple copyright infringement (I haven't checked what license is Notepad++ under), they might need to enlist a lawyer sooner rather than later.

archy_• 3 months ago

There's clearly demand for notepad++ on Mac. Refusing to meet users where they are at with a simple port feels like squatting on a trademark. I find myself sympathetic to the Mac porter more than Don Ho.

outofpaper• 3 months ago

Notepad++ is not registered with the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office). Searches around will turn up nothing in the U.S. database. The name is trademarked in France (via INPI, the French patent office), which is why the maintainer has been able to send cease-and-desist notices in recent cases (e.g., the unauthorized “Notepad++ for Mac” site).

In the U.S. its only covered by common-law trademark rights from long use, as there’s no federal registration.

QuiEgo• 3 months ago

That thread (not Don Hos post, but some of the other post) is so cringe, so many people making very dramatic assertions about how they know better than everyone else. It’s borderline “Star Wars is better than Star Trek and anyone else who says otherwise is an idiot and I have to get on the web and prove it” levels of cringe.

jeffnash2• 3 months ago

The timing of this is very funny for me, personally. After the Claude Code Rust re-implementation, I wanted to see how far I could push 'spec-driven development' by re-implementing Notepad++ for Linux. I used four agentic loops to draft detailed from the source, implement the code, write tests to fix regressions, and compare the result with the original source. I then re-themed it and actually came out pretty well.

I initially worried that a brand new name (I went with nootpad) might misleadingly suggest the project was built from scratch rather than being a semi-clean-room re-implementation. Then, I saw that NPP was trademarked and my worries flipped the other direction; the reason I haven't yet published it was because I'm still removing all the NPP references from the source + comments in an abundance of caution, leaving a huge disclaimer/attribution in the README. I know that OSS is an opinionated place and didn't want to step on any toes.

I must say, having all of that anxiety and seeing this guy literally put Don Ho's picture on the website and say that it was being re-named "in collaboration with" Don Ho (i.e. not in response to a legal threat) made me laugh out loud.

msephton• 3 months ago

Call it Nopepad++

ssl-36• 3 months ago

"nootpad" is already a very dissimilar name and I wouldn't expect that to draw any ire from anyone. Trademarks aren't absolute in their breadth.

"Notepad++ For Linux" would probably piss some folks off, though. ;)

If in doubt, always ask for clarity. And then -- if/when clarity is provided -- simply proceed accordingly.

lukan13• 3 months ago

If you make it run stable, please do publish it at earliest opportunity.

(I volunteer for testing)

I guess now is also the time to ask Don Ho if he is ok with it the way it is. I guess he says yes. He did not take issue with the source of "notepad++ for mac" but with the branding. That people think he is behind. Nootpad is distinctive enough from notepad++, if at all I would worry about microsoft taking issue.

soleveloper• 3 months ago

NixPad++

But don't block on the name, you could release it under NejneobhospodařovávatelnějšíPad++ and people will download.

It'll be easy search & replace later once you settle on a name

netruk44• 3 months ago

With all this discussion about Notepad++ finally being ported to Mac, I thought I’d drop a link to a previous attempt at a “port” that I’d heard of.

Notepad Next: https://github.com/dail8859/NotepadNext

It’s a (still work in progress) cross platform re-implementation of Notepad++.

It also predates agentic coding, if that’s something that concerns you.

RIMR• 3 months ago

Notepad++ is GPL, and this fork has followed the rules of that license.

Other GPL projects have unofficial forks that didn't change the name or logo for the software in the process, and it mostly seems fine. FreeBSD ports are probably a good example of these in the wild.

Listing the original author as an author of the port is a requirement of the GPL, and the language used on this website makes it clear that Dan is the original author of the Windows release, and not the developer of the Mac release.

The only thing I see as an issue here is how the author of the port, Andrey, has failed to directly indicate that this is an unofficial port anywhere on the website, and is promoting this as if it were official. He does seem to be some engaging in some shameless self-promotion, and I understand how the open source community would not appreciate someone vibe-porting a popular GPL tool, and then acting like they own part of the official project now.

In that respect, I do see a trademark violation.

xbar• 3 months ago

Trademark violation is the problem. It is a sufficiently significant problem.

kstrauser4• 3 months ago

FreeBSD ports are probably a good example of these in the wild.

FreeBSD ports are nearly always tiny patches on a project together it to compile on that OS, and look for its config in /usr/local/etc instead of /etc. It is the original software plus minimal tweaks. Linux distros do the exact same thing. When you install a Debian package, you’re getting Debian’s patched version. Same for RedHat, Homebrew, and nearly every other package manager.

The fork we’re discussing here is a rewrite of the original in a different language while still calling it the original name.

WesolyKubeczek• 3 months ago

I see a Russian name, I assume very cavalier approach to copyright and trademark laws, especially if it is about someone else's copyright or trademark. This heuristic has had enough nines for me to qualify as 100% accurate.

Source: having been in ex-USSR through all of 1990s and 2000s.

Lucasoato• 3 months ago

Trademark laws? Copyright? Private property? Comrade, you must have hit your head hard, now quick, get the shovel, we need to load the coal in another truck for the glory of the Soviet Union!

itsrobreally• 3 months ago

I dropped Notepad++ after their last malware issue^. I miss it, but I'm not going back. I can't believe anyone would trust this.

^ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/hijacked-incident-info-up...

jimmydoe• 3 months ago

it's nothing new. young people are ambitious and internet has been "claimed" by "last gen".

I have a project with only ~600 stars. someone approached me want to contribute an adjacent project to be part of "official suite" and do rev share on my donation, and she already purchased a domain with a different TLD.

Fortunately, she agreed with my recommendation of using her brand and maintain her own donation jar, she still owns that domain but not using it so far.

mobeigi• 3 months ago

I wish people wouldn't abuse the author of that project over this. Giving them the benefit of the doubt in that this was a mistake and not intentionally malicious, it feels really bad for hundreds if not thousands of people to send hate, insults, abuse to a single individual. Shame on the people who are doing that.

adamtulinius2• 3 months ago

The only way you can consider this a mistake is by not having read the github comments here: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issue...

kjs33• 3 months ago

I think you need to do a little more research before you give the poor, poor little author of 'that project' a pass.

jdlyga• 3 months ago

Could've just called it MacPad++ or something

kstrauser4• 3 months ago

Trademark is the one form of IP I genuinely appreciate (minus anything involving the International Olympic Committee). If I buy something labeled as a Coke, I want some strong assurances that it was made by the Coca-Cola company, not a fan who wanted to bring Coke to new venues. If I were to buy a Dell laptop, first, shoot me because I’ve lost my mind. But if I did, then I want to know it’s made by Dell Corp and not someone collecting parts off Alibaba. Trademarks benefit their owners, but they also benefit the customers.

Which is all to say this story is wild. Sorry, author, this is not Notepad++, and saying otherwise is lying to the end users. Don Ho has a reputation to protect as the real author. This fork has nothing to protect; it could embed a code exporter to shop all your stuff to North Korea without costing its author any rep, because they weren’t starting with any to begin with. I don’t know Ho, I don’t use Windows, and I’ve never used Notepad++, but this lie is dangerous to Ho, and the people using his stuff because they trust his name.

It’s rare you see an IP argument where one side is clearly legally and ethically correct. This is our one for the year, I suspect.

jmull2• 3 months ago

I think there's a significant chance this fake Notepad++ for Mac is/becomes a vector for malware.

The author is impossibly naive. The best interpretation is they are easy dupes for a supply-chain attack.

Hopefully the word gets around that no one should install this (whether or not the author of the fake version eventually finishes "evolving the branding" of the port).

adamtulinius2• 3 months ago

Too bad MacRumors didn't bother doing more than adding a note to where they recommended this fake copy: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/29/notepad-plus-plus-edito...

They didn't even bother removing the links!

minimaxir3• 3 months ago

MacRumors has now just posted another post about the controversy: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/04/notepad-plus-plus-trade...

throwaway27448• 3 months ago

Isn't notepad++ also a vector for malware? It would seem to be more of a violation of the trademark to not distribute malware

jmull2• 3 months ago

You're arguing the malware risk from notepad++ created and run by Don Ho for over 22 years is comparable to that of new, fake notepad++, vibe coded and run by a guy whose main claim to fame is a marked ignorance of norms around software development?

You'll have to let us know how you reached that conclusion.

bdcravens2• 3 months ago

It's open source

https://github.com/nextpad-plus-plus/nextpad-plus-plus-macos

ChrisMarshallNY3• 3 months ago

I inadvertently used someone else's trademark, once. They weren't really doing a good job of managing it, so it didn't show up in any of my searches (which did not include the USPTO, which didn't have a decent Web presence, back then).

They contacted me, after it had been up (a Website), and said I needed to stop using it immediately.

They were right. I was wrong. It came down in an hour, and I set up a new site, using a different name, in a day or so.

I offered to give them the domain name. They didn't want it, but that was fine. I stopped using (and paying for) it immediately.

EdwardDiego2• 3 months ago

I created a plugin for a niche markup language recently. I asked them if I could use their logo for it on GH, they said yes, I did and added a note to the licence file explaining that their unregistered trademark was used with permission.

It's not hard to do the right thing, either upfront or once you realize you'd done the wrong thing.

ChrisMarshallNY3• 3 months ago

On another note, I was once contacted through Apple's infringement service, that the app I wrote, was infringing on someone else's.

The app started with the first four letters of their app name ("Ambi").

they were probably going after any app that started with those four letters, so they would rank higher in searches. Since they used Apple's service, they could probably have had my app taken down, even though there was no way that their claim had any merit.

In that case, I was planning on changing the app's name, anyway (it wasn't a very good name), but I could see this kind of thing being a huge PItA.

c-hendricks• 3 months ago

Almost happened to me once, but instead of threatening legal action the company asked for a couple of features, sent me free hardware, and a next-gen board that made my software redundant.

emsign• 3 months ago

Deepfaked software?

_el1s7• 3 months ago

Trademark infringement seems to be rising these days, thanks to AI slop. Surprisingly, the domain registrars and hosting providers don't really seem to care much about these issues.

To takedown something that is infringing your brand, you would have to spend time and money dealing with bureaucratic procedures.

CodeWriter23• 3 months ago

I think this all turns on, did the original author assert "Addtional Terms" under GPL v3 7e:

e) Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some trade names, trademarks, or service marks; or

If he did not, it would appear to this non-lawyer that he released the icon and branding under the GPL.

kube-system8• 3 months ago

The author does not have to assert those additional terms to have trademark protection, because the law provides for that by default, and the GPL v3 does not have a trademark grant clause.

GPL v3 e7 means that, if for whatever reason, you do explicitly disclaim trademark grants, it does not violate or invalidate the copyright license.

gradientsrneat• 3 months ago

FWIW it's feasible to make a "clone" of Notepad++ using the Scintilla library that Notepad++ is based on, but don't violate trademarks of course. That said, it's the details that make Notepad++ good.

jonenst• 3 months ago

I wonder how the legal battle will develop : the trademark https://data.inpi.fr/marques/FR5133202 is France only I think ? So a Paris resident infringed upon by a NYC resident, with content on github and also a website registered with godaddy (according to whois) and using cloudflare dns servers. Good luck sorting everything out. Although maybe the relative fame of the project will act as a lubricant/privilege in this case ? (IANAL but if this case is as obvious as it looks, speed would be good. And ideally it would be fast for any such case, not just the famous ones)

bdcravens2• 3 months ago

The Mac port is open source, and has rebranded:

https://github.com/nextpad-plus-plus/nextpad-plus-plus-macos

The name was a trademark violation, but the project appears to be compliant with the open source license used by Notepad++.

minimaxir3• 3 months ago

The app has now posted a message indicating a rebranding:

Starting with upcoming version 1.0.6, Notepad++ for Mac will be renamed to Nextpad++. The new name is a small nod to Mac history. Before returning to Apple in 1996, Steve Jobs founded NeXT, which became the foundation of what is now macOS.

Given the context of a) trademark infringement and b) framing it as a comeback story, this compliance seems to be malicious.

gblargg2• 3 months ago

And not as clear as it could be:

Is this the "real" Notepad++ for Mac?
This is the actual Notepad++ codebase ported to run natively on macOS. It is not a knockoff, a Wine wrapper, or a new editor that imitates Notepad++.

Why not just say "No, this is not Notepad++ for Mac. It's my own port of the code from Notepad++." It still sounds like he's trying to pass it off as the actual Notepad++.

user3939382• 3 months ago

idk it clearly says ported and addresses that it’s not the original about 3x in the FAQ

AppAttestationz• 3 months ago

Notepad+++ was born.

lnxg33k1• 3 months ago

Bold from someone who named its program notepad++

aethertron• 3 months ago

"It actually expands notepad++ brand to mac"
"My intention was to expand your brand."

Funny he thinks 'expanding' someone else's 'brand' is doing them a favour.

'I inflated your currency! There's more now, you should appreciate!'

Trademark violation: Fake Notepad++ for Mac

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