After a heated war of words with a fellow open-source development group, Mozilla.org appears to be backing down on its use of the name "Firebird" for future releases of its browser.

The dispute began last month when Mozilla.org, the browser-development group funded by AOL Time Warner, announced it would change the name of the Phoenix version of its browser to "Firebird," and the "Minotaur" mail client to "Thunderbird."

But the group now appears to have changed course, returning its marketing focus to the Mozilla name.

"Use the names 'Mozilla Browser' and 'Mozilla Mail' to describe the Firebird and Thunderbird projects after the 1.4 release," reads a Mozilla branding policy published April 25, referring to the release slated for May 14. "This branding should be found throughout the projects if possible instead of referring to the Firebird and Thunderbird names directly. Project names are transitory."

Project names have been especially transitory for Mozilla in recent months. The open-source group decided to adopt a smaller, faster version of its code, which had operated under the name Phoenix. But that name brought the group into trademark conflict with Phoenix Technologies, a San Jose, Calif.-based company that markets a browser of its own.

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