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, Community Impact, 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.”
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.