There is a lot of controversy going on in the world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites. The central issue is a dispute between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress.
WordPress technology is open source, free, and powers a huge portion of the internet (approximately 40% of websites). Websites can host their own WordPress instance or use a solution provider like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play solution.
In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine “the cancer of WordPress.” He criticized the host for disabling the ability for users to see and track the revision history of all posts. Mullenweg said he believes this feature is “core to our users' promise to protect their data” and that WP Engine turns it off by default to save costs.
He also singled out WP Engine investor Silver Lake, saying they don't contribute enough to open source projects and that WP Engine's use of the “WP” branding makes customers think they're part of WordPress. He said he misunderstood.
legal battle
In response, WP Engine sent cease-and-desist letters to Mullenweg and Automattic to retract their comments. It also said that use of WordPress' trademarks falls under fair use.
The company claimed that Mullenweg said he intended to take a “scorched-earth approach” to WP Engine unless he agreed to pay “a significant percentage of sales in licensing fees for the WordPress trademark.”
In response, Automattic sent a message of its own. We sent a cease and desist letter to WP Engine for violating WordPress and WooCommerce trademark usage rules.
The WordPress Foundation also changed its trademark policy page and called out WP Engine, claiming that its hosting service was confusing users.
“The abbreviation 'WP' is not covered by the WordPress trademark, but please don't use it in a way that confuses people.” For example, many people think that WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and is officially associated with WordPress, but that's not the case. “Despite the fact that they make billions of dollars in revenue from WordPress, they have never donated to the WordPress Foundation,” the updated page reads.
WP Engine Ban, Community Impact, Trademark Disputes
Mullenweg then banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources. Elements like plugins and themes are under open source licenses, but providers like WP Engine need to run a service to obtain them, which is not covered by open source licenses.
This destroyed many websites and made them inaccessible. Update plugins and themes. Also, some of them remain exposed to security attacks. The community was not happy with this approach, which left small websites powerless.
In response to the incident, WP Engine said in a post that Mullenweg abused WordPress administration to prevent WP Engine customers from accessing WordPress.org.
“Matt Mullenweg's unprecedented misconduct disrupts the normal operations of the entire WordPress ecosystem and threatens not only WP Engine and our customers, but all WordPress plugin developers that rely on WP Engine tools like ACF. and open source users,” WP Engine said.
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg abused WordPress administration to prevent WP Engine customers from accessing https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh, and WP Engine /erlNmkIol2 claimed that he did so because he was filing a lawsuit. This is simply not true. Our cancellation…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) September 26, 2024
On September 27th, WordPress.org temporarily lifted the ban, allowing WP Engine access to its resources until October 1st.
Mullenweg wrote a blog post clarifying that this battle is only against WP Engine over trademarks. He said Automattic had been trying to broker a trademark licensing deal for a long time, but WP Engine's only response was to “take us along.”
The WordPress community and other projects feel this could happen to them and are demanding an explanation from Automattic, which holds the exclusive license to the WordPress trademark. The community also wants clear guidance on how WordPress can and cannot be used.
The WordPress Foundation, which owns the trademark, has also applied for trademarks for “managed WordPress” and “hosted WordPress.” Developers and providers are concerned that these trademarks could be infringed if granted.
The developer is We expressed concerns about relying on commercial open source products related to WordPress, especially when access could be quickly lost.
John O'Nolan, founder of the open source content management system Ghost, also addressed this issue, criticizing the way WordPress is managed by a single person.
“The web needs more independence, it needs more diversity. 40% of the web and 80% of the CMS market should not be controlled by any individual,” he said. . ×post.
On September 30th, the day before WordPress.org's WP Engine ban expired, the hosting company updated the site's footer to clarify that it is not directly affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or owns any WordPress deals. .
“WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the WordPress® user community. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are owned by WooCommerce, Inc. Intellectual Property. Use of the names WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® on this website is for identification purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. “WP Engine is not endorsed, owned by, or affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc.,” the site's updated description reads.
The company also changed the plan names from “Essential WordPress,” “Core WordPress,” and “Enterprise WordPress” to “Essential,” “Core,” and “Enterprise.”
WP Engine said in a statement that it has changed these terms to invalidate Automattic's claims.
“We, like the rest of the WordPress community, use the WordPress marks to describe our business. Automattic's suggestion that WPE needs a license to do that is simply false. and reflect a misunderstanding of trademark law.To address the concerns asserted, we have removed several examples that Automattic cited in its letter to us on September 23. a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
On October 1, the company posted on X that it had successfully introduced its own solution for updating plugins and themes.
We are pleased to report that our solution has been fully implemented and normal workflow practices have been restored to our customers around the world. We would like to thank all of our customers for their patience and support this past week. Like many of you, we love WordPress and…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) October 1, 2024