<P> Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. is a fictional paper sales company featured in the American television series The Office . It is analogous to Wernham Hogg in the British original of the series, and Papiers Jennings and Cogirep in the French Canadian and French adaptations respectively . Originally, the company was completely fictitious, but eventually, the brand was used to sell products at Staples and other office supply outlets . </P> <P> Two websites were created to support the fictional company, one with the image of a public website, and one meant to look like the corporation's intranet . NBC sold branded merchandise at its NBC Universal Store website . Its logo was prominently displayed in several locations in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the show is set . Scranton has been associated internationally with Dunder Mifflin due to the show's international reach . In a 2008 St. Patrick's Day speech in the suburb of Dickson City, then - Taoiseach, or prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern made a reference to the city's fictional branch office . </P> <P> A fourth - season episode, "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", said the company was founded in 1949 by Robert Dunder and Robert Mifflin, originally to sell brackets for use in construction . The fifth - season episode "Company Picnic" said that the co-founders met on a tour of Dartmouth College . U.S. News and World Report likens it to many real companies in its size range: "It is facing an increasingly competitive marketplace . Like many smaller players, it just can't compete with the low prices charged by big - box rivals like Staples, OfficeMax and Office Depot, and it seems to be constantly bleeding corporate customers that are focused on cutting costs themselves ." The show's creators share this assessment--"It's basically a Staples, just not as big", says co-producer Kent Zbornak--as do some of those companies . "Since Dunder Mifflin could be considered among our competitors", says Chuck Rubin, an Office Depot executive, "I think Michael Scott is actually the perfect person to run their Scranton office ." </P> <P> The company was depicted as based in New York City, with branches in smaller Northeastern cities . Episodes are set in the Scranton branch, but other branches have been mentioned and seen . The now - closed Stamford, Connecticut, branch was seen when Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) transferred there during the first half of the third season . Another episode, "Branch Wars", gave viewers a brief glimpse of the Utica branch, one of several purportedly in upstate New York . Zbornak says that city was on the short list for where to base the show, with some of its writers having ties to Central New York, and that they always intended for at least a branch office to be located there, for reasons of phonetics . "Utica was just such a different - sounding name than Scranton," Zbornak says . But also, "we had done a little research and thought our kind of business could survive in Utica ." </P>

Where did they get the name dunder mifflin
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