The world of WordPress, one of the most used technologies for creating and hosting websites, is in the midst of a very heated controversy. At the core of the issue is a dispute between Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, and WP Engine, which hosts websites built with WordPress.
WordPress technology is open source, free, and powers the majority of the Internet – approximately 40% of websites. Websites can host their own WordPress instance or use a plug-and-play solution with a solution provider such as Automattic or WP Engine.
In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine a “cancer against WordPress” for disabling users' ability to see and track revisions to each post. Mullenweg said he considered the feature “core to our promise to protect our users' data” and that WP Engine disables it by default to save costs.
He also criticized WP Engine investor Silver Lake, saying the company doesn't contribute enough to open source projects, and said WP Engine's use of the “WP” branding creates confusion for customers who think it's part of WordPress.
Legal battle
WP Engine responded by telling Mullenweg and Automattic to retract their comments, and said that its use of the WordPress trademark was within the bounds of fair use.
The company alleged that Mullenweg said he would take a “scorched earth” approach against WP Engine unless the company agreed to “pay a significant percentage of its revenues as a license fee for the WordPress trademark.”
In response, the Automatic We have sent a cease and desist letter to WP Engine for violating our WordPress and WooComerce trademark usage rules.
The WordPress Foundation has also updated its trademark policy page to denounce WP Engine, claiming that the hosting service is confusing users.
“The abbreviation 'WP' is not a 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 this is not the case. They have made billions of dollars in revenue from WordPress, yet have never donated to the WordPress Foundation,” the updated page reads.
WP Engine Ban, Community Impact, and Trademark Dispute
Mullenweg then banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources. Although Elementor plugins and themes are under an open source license, providers like WP Engine need to run services to retrieve them, which are not covered by the open source license.
This has broken many websites, They updated their plugins and themes, some of which were left open to security attacks, and the community was unhappy with this approach, which left smaller websites vulnerable.
In response to the incident, WP Engine said in a post that Mullenweg had abused his authority over WordPress to prevent WP Engine customers from accessing WordPress.org.
“Matt Mullenweg's unprecedented and unjustified actions disrupt the normal functioning of the entire WordPress ecosystem and impact not only WP Engine and our customers, but all WordPress plugin developers and open source users who rely on WP Engine tools like ACF,” WP Engine said.
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg claims that Automattic abused WordPress privileges to prevent WP Engine customers from accessing https://t.co/ZpKb9q4jPh and did so because WP Engine filed a lawsuit against https://t.co/erlNmkIol2. This is simply not true. Our suspension…
— WP Engine (@wpengine) September 26, 2024
Mullenweg clarified in a blog post that the dispute is solely with WP Engine over trademarks. He said Automattic has long tried to broker a trademark license agreement, but WP Engine's only response has been to “drag us around.”
The WordPress community and other projects feel that something similar 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” may and may not be used.
The WordPress Foundation, which owns the trademark, has also applied to register “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress,” which developers and providers fear could be used against them if granted.