Plugin and Theme – Same Name Conflict from different Authors – method to fix

Problem ;
Some themes use the same name as another already established theme.
And some plugins may or may not do the same thing.
But some plugins may use folders by the same name even if the plugin name is different.

For the process that accepts new themes and plugins –

Possible Solution – Concept;
Require that the metadata that is associated with the uniqueness check for a theme/plugin, includes the author name.
The date of first creation can also be included (version numbers get treated the same as presently).
So even if the theme/plugin has the same name, the combined data will be different.

Example Implementation methods;
a) Listing of the theme/plugin in lists, ‘ties’ the plugin name with the author name.
A plugin is therefore not referenced (if using a stringent mode) by name alone, but also the additional associated metadata.
The name of the folder that the theme/plugin gets installed to, is named based on the name of the plugin, the name of the author, and the date of first creation.
Folder names will be longer than at present, but will be much more likely to be unique, and will cope with the majority of random items.
The probability of ‘accidental’ conflict of matching names and folders, is drastically reduced.

or
b) WordPress takes the plugin name, author name, and date of first creation, and uses a standard method to generate a code and/or folder name for the plugin.
There may be an option to generate an error detection/correction check number, so alteration is more difficult.
This folder name is then issued by WordPress and is checked (automatically against its list of plugins) as being unique, and given to the plugin author to use as their unique plugin name and/or metadata, and folder name.

There are other variations that are possible, but it is hoped that something like the concept described here may be helpful in obtaining the following benefits;
a) The theme and plugin names and folders are much more likely to be unique.
b) If wordpress issues the unique name, then there can be no argument about any actions made by ‘other’ theme or plugin authors (date of first creation can help solve this).
c) The theme and plugin authors are less likely to have to retrospectively make adjustments to avoid conflict.
d) The theme and plugin authors are protected from actions of other authors that may wish to pass their product off as being the original product (and do what ever they do), which significantly increases their confidence in the system.
e) since the system uses small metadata for each plugin, and lists can be maintained (as they already are for themes and plugins – on wordpress site), then having made/generated an name, it can easily be automatically checked against the list to check for conflicts (this check could be initiated by the author or the staff that process plugin submissions.

Note
Themes/plugins which are available only from off site locations, may still be permitted to join a separate list (of this metadata), that works the same way.
So all theme/plugin authors that are keen to avoid conflicts can join the respective list, and get checked against both lists. This would reduce the chance of a conflict even with themes and plugins which are not downloadable or listed on the wordpress site.
The user does not need to know which plugins are not downloadable, as they are not presented with those anyway. But the user gets the piece of mind that the chances of conflicts with other plugins on the net have been reduced.

Using methods that have reduced the chances of ‘accidental’ name/folder conflict, means that precautions can be taken in the unlikely event of a conflict happening.