Notepad++ creator objects to unofficial Mac app using the name

In short: The creator of Notepad++ says an unofficial Mac app wrongly used the Notepad++ name and logo, which made people think it was official.

What happened

Notepad++ is a popular text editor that has been Windows-only since it launched in 2003. Its creator and main maintainer, Don Ho, says the project has never released a macOS version.

In recent days, a separate developer, Andrey Letov, published a “Notepad++ for Mac” app and a related website. Ho says this used the Notepad++ trademark, meaning the protected name and branding, without permission. Ho wrote that it confused users and even fooled some tech news sites into treating it like an official release.

Ho and Letov discussed the issue publicly in a GitHub thread. Ho asked Letov to stop using the Notepad++ name and logo and to change the project URL, so users would not contact Ho for support. Letov said he did not mean to imply Ho was involved and said he would make naming changes, but asked for time.

Ho later reported the trademark use to Cloudflare, a service that helps websites load faster and stay online (like a delivery network for web pages). Letov has started rebranding the app to “NextPad++” and swapped the icon, but version 1.0.5 was still available with the Notepad++ branding at the time of reporting.

Letov also told Ars Technica the app and website were built at least partly using Anthropic’s Claude coding tool.

Why it matters

When an unofficial app looks “official,” people can download it expecting trusted updates and support. There is also a safety risk, since unofficial downloads can be harder to verify, like buying a lookalike product in similar packaging.

Source: Arstechnica