This story has been updated throughout with updated details as the story unfolds. We will continue to do so as litigation and disputes are ongoing.
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 asking them 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 and trademark dispute
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.”
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. The use of the names WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® on this website is for identification purposes only and constitutes an 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 so is completely false. , reflects a misunderstanding of trademark law.To address the concerns asserted, we have removed several examples that Automattic cited in its September 23 letter to us.'' a 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
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 October 9, David Heinemeyer Hanson, developer of the web app development framework Ruby on Rails, announced that Automattic violated open source software principles by requiring WP Engine to pay 8% of its revenue. I was of the opinion that
“Automattic is completely insane, and its potential damage to the open source world far exceeds WordPress. Don't let the drama and its characters distract you from the threat.” he said in a blog post.
On the same day, Mullenweg added a new checkbox to the WordPress.org contributor login, asking them to confirm that they are not associated in any way with WP Engine. This move was criticized by the contributor community. Some posters said they were banned from community Slack for opposing the move.
Image credit: WordPress.org
In response, WP Engine said its customers, agencies, users, and the community at large are not affiliated with the company.
Like the rest of the community, we've seen a new checkbox for login at https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh. This has caused confusion within the community as to whether or how you are obligated to answer the question next to the checkbox.
We care about our customers, agents, users and…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) October 9, 2024
WP Engine lawsuit and Automattic leak
On October 3, WP Engine filed suit against Automattic and Mullenweg in California state court, alleging abuse of power. The hosting company also alleged that Automattic and Mullenweg failed to honor their promise to run the WordPress open source project without restrictions and give developers the freedom to build, run, modify, and redistribute the software.
“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 is committed to protecting its employees, agency partners, and customers. , and to protect the broader WordPress community, we have no choice but to pursue these claims,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.
The complaint also alleges text messages from Mullenweg about the possibility of hiring WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner. Mullenweg said in comments to Hacker News that Brunner wants to become WordPress.org's executive director.
In response, Automatic argued that the lawsuit lacked merit.
“I woke up last night reading WP Engine's Complaint to see if there was any merit to it. It all makes no sense, and we look forward to a federal court considering their case,” the company said. Neel Katyal, legal representative for , said in a blog post.
On the same day, 159 Automattic employees who disagreed with Mullenweg's direction for the company and WordPress as a whole quit the company with severance packages. Almost 80% of those who left worked in Automattic's ecosystem/WordPress division.
WordPress announced on October 8 that Mary Hubbard, former head of governance and experience at TikTok US, will be joining the company as executive director. This position was previously held by Josepha Haden Chomphosy, one of the 159 people who left Automattic. The day before this, we announced that one of our WP Engine engineers will be joining Automattic.
Contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com or Signal: @ivan.42.