So, it appears the problem is that OpenOffice still has all the brand recognition, while LibreOffice suffers from a lack of awareness. The chances are slim to none that LibreOffice will ever be able adopt the OpenOffice trademark.
I think the LibreOffice project should use this opportunity to rebrand themselves and build even more distance from OpenOffice and MS Office. Pick a name that's easier to pronounce, spell, and remember - simple English words without two vowels in a row. (What was that? Did you say Leebray Office? Libruh Office? Lib Roffice? Does this have something to do with Mexicans and liberals? We're capitalists here!)
Everyone who cares about "libre" software will still know it's libre without putting it in the name. Communicate that this is the office suite that successful people use, not the one that poor people use because they're poor.
When people want OpenOffice, I just give them LibreOffice. Non technical people can deal with that dissonance, after all, Office says something like "FILE untitled" on top, and not "Microsoft Office".
LibreOffice and the document foundation can't use the OpenOffice trademark, but that doesn't mean we can't. We should write a lot of articles pointing to LibreOffice and calling it The OpenOffice, and try to make LibreOffice the #1 search result for OpenOffice. Let's genericize the hell out of OpenOffice.
Trademarks should ideally serve to protect customers, so they get what they think they are buying. But this is one of the cases where the exclusive right to the trademark hurts customers.
Diluting the trademark is an interesting thought, but I'm pretty sure it would backfire. After all that effort, it will still take a court battle just to gamble on proving the trademark generic. The lawyers will dig up threads like this to show conspiracy. When it all flops, OpenOffice comes away with a ton of publicity and a stronger brand than ever before. Silver lining: maybe that would be enough to jump-start development.
If the community were to write a ton of articles pointing to LibreOffice and calling it anything, that would help brand recognition for whatever they're calling it. MindStream, Keen Suite, Able Office, The Expressive Toolbox, the open office called LibreOffice, ... (random ideas)
I think LibreOffice can and probably will absorb OpenOffice's mind share over time, but I don't think either one stands a chance to become the standard suite that everyone expects to find everywhere. Not as long as dull license terms that almost nobody cares about remain the core of their identity.
tl;dr trademarks in lots of countries, URL availability in lots of countries. This stuff is hard. "Why don't they just make up a new name?" Well, that explains why.
He also doesn't sound very excited about the name, but "it was already hard enough to settle on this name" is reasonable enough I guess. I wonder what they would have come up with without the self-imposed constraint to sound like a derivative of OpenOffice.
I disagree. To most normal users, I expect they perceive libreoffice and openpffice.org to be distinct separate projects. Only techies who have been following openoffice.org would know that one is a fork of the other (and even that distinction is starting to become irreverent as both both projects further diverge in terms of feature sets).
I also think that while LibreOffice is relatively new, it name has already begun to spread among normal users. I think it be very unwise to throw that good reputation away and start over. I also happen to be quite found of their current name, LibreOffice. I think it's classy and easy to remember.
I agree it could be difficult for English speakers. I think there are no problems with the name and its pronunciation in continental Europe or Latin America. I wonder how it is in Asia (some large English speaking countries there though.) Africa?
Confirming for Asia(self representing, and observed)
No, the mass population don't know about anything open source etc.etc. and for tech savvy and geeks, few and mostly think that open source hurts economy and are not feasible.
While LibreOffice has been used by some, people are not aware on open source related projects. One might not recognise the difference between LibreOffice and AOO/OOo and MSO.
Open Source related communities are either small or nonexistent in most Asian countries. Some are due to more alarming real-world problems to deal with or basic human rights(dat big country) and civil rights are not even respected to begin with.
And no, actually it's the Chinese speaking country(Taiwan) that have far more recognition and awareness on Libre Office over other Asian countries and friends that I met and have online.
AOO/OOo has dwindled at Taiwan too, and sure, LibreOffice seems weird at first, but understanding the meaning behind it is enough to convince a user to pronounce it. We have other weird names too. Lots of weird names. //didn't proof read
I think the LibreOffice project should use this opportunity to rebrand themselves and build even more distance from OpenOffice and MS Office. Pick a name that's easier to pronounce, spell, and remember - simple English words without two vowels in a row. (What was that? Did you say Leebray Office? Libruh Office? Lib Roffice? Does this have something to do with Mexicans and liberals? We're capitalists here!)
Everyone who cares about "libre" software will still know it's libre without putting it in the name. Communicate that this is the office suite that successful people use, not the one that poor people use because they're poor.