1 week Ago By Kamya Pandey
Explainer Briefly Slides In yet another development amidst the ongoing feud between WordPress’ parent company Automattic and WP Engine (a platform that allows users to host websites built on WordPress), WordPress created a public list of how many websites have stopped using WP Engine. As per the tracker, over 17,000 have left WP Engine and shifted to other service providers since September 21, 2024. While currently accessible, on November 9, Cloudflare flagged the website for phishing and blocked access to it, according to a report by Search Engine Journal.
This comes after WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and its founder Matt Mullenweg for extortion and abuse of power. As per the lawsuit document, Automattic wants WP Engine to pay “tens of millions of dollars per year” to use its trademarks, including WordPress, and WooCommerce. While Automattic holds that WP Engine is using its trademarks without authorisation, WP Engine argues that the “WP” abbreviation isn’t covered under WordPress trademarks.
Comments on Automattic’s tracker’s Github page have pointed out the irony in the fact that while the Automattic vs WP Engine debate deals with improper usage of trademarks, the tracker uses WP Engine’s trademark without permission. Demands to dismiss the lawsuit: In a court petition filed on October 31 , Mullenweg and Automattic’s lawyers argue that WP Engine conjured its legal claim “out of thin air” urging the court to dismiss the lawsuit. The petition argues that WP Engine exploits free resources, “while refusing to meaningfully give back to the WordPress community.
” Automattic says that WP Engine hasn’t always infringed on its trademarks, instead its priorities changed in 2018 when a private equity firm took control of three board seats. “In the years following Silver Lake’s assumption of control over WP Engine, WP Engine began to progressively shift how it uses the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks and to change the features it offers in connection with the WordPress software and its overall customer service in order to maximize profit and to trade off the goodwill associated with the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks,” the company argues. It explains that the company first infringed WordPress trademark when it incorporated the WordPress name into its own product offering which it called “Headless WordPress.
” Further, the petition gives a rebuttal to WP Engine’s claims about WordPress’ trademark policy. WP Engine argues that in 2010, Automattic transferred the WordPress trademarks and source code to the nonprofit WordPress Foundation. The foundation, in turn, licensed the commercial rights back to Automattic.
WP Engine argues that Mullenweg did not disclose this transaction in WordPress Foundation’s tax filings. “WP Engine also attempts to frame Automattic’s assignment of the WordPress trademarks to the Foundation as some nefarious act when in fact most for profit companies would never consider such a transfer of trademark rights,” Automattic’s petition reads. WP Engine made changes to its site before filing a lawsuit: According to Automattic and Mullenweg, days before filing its lawsuit, WP Engine “scurried to delete various unauthorized uses of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks from its website”.
These included: The company clarifies that while WP Engine alleges that Mullenweg’s actions have caused it financial harm, an obvious reason for financial harm is WP Engine’s own business practices. “Several of the examples WP Engine points to of individuals allegedly considering a move away from WP Engine,” the company says citing Reddit users and Trustpilot reviews (which WP Engine had attached with its original complaint). Also read:.
