After the recent renaming of Mozilla Firefox (formerly Mozilla Firebird), there's been a lot of half-truths, troll posts, and outright BS being slung around on the few online forums that we read. For what it's worth, we really dig the name "Firefox", not only because we think it's cool, but because the third time (Phoenix >> Firebird >> Firefox) does look like it's going to be the "charm". We're also very glad to see talented and passionate folks joining the Mozilla Visual Identity Team.

But back to the point... the most often repeated and ridiculous comments surrounding Firefox are those that point out how there was a movie named Firefox, and how the Mozilla Foundation will now have to rename the browser again, and how they keep shooting themselves in the foot, and how heaps of "brand recognition" keep getting flushed down the drain, and how this is the death rattle of OSS. Then someone usually suggests "x" that they think should have been used... followed by someone else pointing out how there is a company in Pango Pango named "x" that makes chocolate sex toys or light fixtures or something.

A little trademark law brush up is in order (emphasis ours):

If a party owns the rights to a particular trademark, that party can sue subsequent parties for trademark infringement. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125. The standard is "likelihood of confusion." To be more specific, the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods. In deciding whether consumers are likely to be confused, the courts will typically look to a number of factors, including: (1) the strength of the mark; (2) the proximity of the goods; (3) the similarity of the marks; (4) evidence of actual confusion; (5) the similarity of marketing channels used; (6) the degree of caution exercised by the typical purchaser; (7) the defendant's intent. (source)

Also of note (and answering a whole other slew of forum posts), Thunderbird developer Scott MacGregor says: "no plans to rename."