Web hosting service WP Engine is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic. This follows a public battle over WordPress’ trademarks. The federal lawsuit accuses Mullenweg of “abuse of power, extortion and greed.”
This is the latest move in the ongoing battle between WordPress and WP Engine, but it requires a little background knowledge. WordPress is the backend that powers the majority of the internet, about 40% of websites. Users can build a website from scratch using WordPress, or choose easy plug-and-play solutions from third-party providers like WP Engine.
Mullenweg, who runs his own provider called Automattic, began loudly criticizing WP Engine in September, calling it “the cancer of WordPress.” He said the third-party provider’s name confuses customers, leading them to believe it is actually part of WordPress. He also accused WP Engine of turning off certain features to save costs.
TechCrunch reports that WP Engine responded with a cease-and-desist letter and a request to retract the aforementioned comments. It also said that use of the WordPress trademark is legal under fair use. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Mullenweg threatened to take a “scorched-earth approach” to WP Engine unless it agreed to pay “a significant percentage of sales in licensing fees for the WordPress trademark.”
The WordPress Foundation has since changed its trademark policy page to say that WP Engine has “never” donated to the foundation’s open source arm “despite the billions of dollars in revenue generated by WordPress.” denounced. He even suggested that WP Engine was hiding its trademark abuse by editing its website.
Some of the frenetic changes @wpengine accesses the site to hide trademark violations, such as editing customer quotes without permission.
I confirmed that @pcrumm He did not approve this change. Journalists should contact WPE and others about this matter. pic.twitter.com/NQOZ0TPDDT
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) October 3, 2024
Mullenweg also prohibited WP Engine from accessing certain resources such as some plugins and themes. WP Engine supports over 200,000 websites, and this move is said to have broken many websites. In response, the company wrote that Mullenweg’s “unprecedented and inappropriate actions disrupt the normal operations of the entire WordPress ecosystem and impact not only WP Engine and our customers.”
Matt Mullenweg and Automattic’s self-proclaimed scorched earth policy against WP Engine has not only harmed our company, but the entire WordPress ecosystem. The symbiotic relationship between WordPress, its community, and the companies that invest millions of dollars to support WordPress…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) October 3, 2024
On October 1st, WP Engine announced that it has developed a unique solution that gives consumers access to all of the themes and plugins they are missing. This was followed by today’s lawsuit, which accuses Mullenweg of demanding 8 percent of the company’s monthly revenue as royalty payments. The complaint also alleges that Mullenweg and Automatic engaged in defamation, slander, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and fraud on the Internal Revenue Service.
“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the past 10 days exposes serious conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust,” WP Engine said in a statement. “WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect our employees, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community.” Mullenweg and Automattic are still responding to today’s developments. I haven’t.
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