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 a cease-and-desist letter 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.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, has misused his control of WordPress to interfere with WP Engine customers’ access to https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh, asserting that he did so because WP Engine filed litigation against https://t.co/erlNmkIol2. This simply is not true. Our Cease &…
— 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 deployed and regular workflow practices have been restored to our customers around the globe. We thank all our customers for their patience and support over the past week. Like so many of you, we love WordPress, and are…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) October 1, 2024
On October 15, TechCrunch reported that Automattic had been planning to involve “kind and remarkable” lawyers to define its trademarks since earlier this year, according to an internal blog post written by the company's then-chief legal officer. Ta. The post also mentioned a strategy to file more trademarks, which the foundation ultimately filed in July.
The WordPress community and other projects feel this could happen to them and are seeking clarification 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 application development framework Ruby on Rails, said that Automattic's request for WP Engine to pay 8% of its revenue is in accordance with the principles of open source software. was of the opinion that it was in violation of the
“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 have seen a new checkbox for logins at https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh that has created confusion amongst the community as to whether or how they are obliged to answer the question posed next to the checkbox.
We value our customers, agencies, users and…— WP Engine (@wpengine) October 9, 2024
On October 12th, WordPress.org took over the management of the ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) plugin, which was managed by WP Engine and allows WordPress developers to easily add customized fields to the editing screen. I did. With WP Engine losing control of its open source plugin repository, the Silver Lake-backed company can no longer update its plugins. WordPress.org and Mullenweg say their plugin guidelines allow organizations to take this step.
On October 28, WordPress allegedly asked organizers of community event WordCamp Sydney to remove posts that talked about WP Engine. Additionally, a leaked letter posted on X said Automattic asked organizers around the world to share their social media account credentials to “keep future events secure.”
WP Engine Lawsuit
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 mentions alleged text messages from Mullenweg regarding the potential hiring of 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 in it. It's all pointless and I look forward to the federal courts considering their case.” Neil Katyal, the company's legal representative, said in a blog post.
On October 18th, WP Engine filed an injunction in California court asking a judge to restore access to WordPress.org. The next day, the company filed an administrative motion asking the court to shorten the hearing time for the earlier preliminary injunction.
Mullenweg and his team opposed the expedited hearing in court documents filed Oct. 21. The company argued that the lawsuit is not about WP Engine's access to WordPress because it already has access to “https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.” They can choose how they want to use it.
“This lawsuit is not about access to WordPress software, but about WordPress.org, which is privately owned by Defendant Matt Mullenweg for the benefit of Defendant Matt Mullenweg’s beloved community. “This is a website operated by the company,” the filing states.
“WordPress.org is not WordPress. WordPress.org is not and is not controlled by Automattic or the WordPress Foundation. In fact, as plaintiffs themselves acknowledge, WordPress.org is Mr. Mullenweg's responsibility. ”
On Oct. 23, Judge Araceli Martinez-Holguin said that unless there are objections, the first hearing on the primary injunction will be held on Nov. 26.
automatic escape
On October 3, 159 Automattic employees who disagreed with Mullenweg's direction for the company and WordPress overall received severance packages and left the company. 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.
On Oct. 12, Mullenweg wrote in a post that he would be giving 200 shares of A12 stock to every Automatic employee as a token of appreciation. These shares are a special class for Automattic employees that can be sold after one year and have no expiration date.
On Oct. 17, Mullenweg posted another adjustment offer on Automattic Slack with nine months of severance pay. Response time was only 4 hours. However, if someone accepts the offer, Mullenweg said, they will also lose access to the WordPress.org community.
Contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com or Signal: @ivan.42.