The controversy surrounding WordPress is escalating and may soon boil over into a trademark dispute.
Just one day after WP Engine sent a request to Automattic’s CEO to halt publicly criticizing them, Automattic has fired back, accusing WP Engine of infringing on multiple trademarks, including WordPress and WooCommerce.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress, recently lambasted the corporation for its lack of contribution to the community, suggesting it does not give back as much as it takes.
Automattic contends in its letter, dated Monday, that WP Engine has built an enterprise valued at over $400 million in revenue by exploiting unauthorized use of its WordPress trademark, a right Automattic asserts it holds exclusively through its affiliation with the WordPress Foundation. Automattic notes that WP Engine has potentially misinformed customers about a perceived close affiliation between the two companies.
“Unauthorized use of the Consumer’s logos by you is an infringement on their intellectual property rights, causing a dilution of their distinctive and highly recognizable brand identity.” The lawsuit alleges that malicious criticisms and unsolicited feedback about WP Engine and its decisions are attributed to our customer, thereby tarnishing our customer’s reputation, diminishing their credibility, and eroding the good will our customer has cultivated in its brand.
“The unauthorised exploitation of the Consumer’s intellectual property has permitted WP Engine to gain an unfair competitive advantage, resulting in unwarranted financial gains.”
Automattic may demand compensation for income generated by WP Engine’s utilization of its logos, threatening legal action if the dispute is not resolved amicably; it reserves the right to seek a civil injunction if necessary.
For context, here’s a great abstract on the WordPress community from my colleague Paul Sawyer:
The popularity of WordPress has led to a thriving ecosystem, where individuals and organizations can harness its open-source power to build their own websites. Simultaneously, several companies have emerged to offer hosting services and technical expertise built upon this foundation, catering to a wide range of users’ needs. In 2005, Mullenweg established These to monetize the mission he had founded two years prior; concurrently, WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting provider, emerged as a leading player, having secured almost $300 million in funding over its 14-year history, with the majority of this investment coming through a significant round in 2018.
WP Engine pushed back against Automattic in a cease-and-desist letter sent Monday, citing its legitimate right to utilize the “WordPress” trademark under fair use laws, justifying its own branding and marketing initiatives tied to the open-source platform. Automattic allegedly possesses a fundamental misapprehension regarding the intricacies of trademark law and WordPress Foundation’s trademark policies.
Mullenweg allegedly demanded that WP Engine pay Automattic a significant percentage of its gross revenue – tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars, in fact – as a recurring fee in exchange for the right to utilize logos like “WordPress.”
“When Mr. Smith’s exorbitant financial demands were left unfulfilled,” “Mullenweg followed through on his warnings by consistently disseminating unfounded criticisms about WP Engine to both its employees and the broader community,”
The letter from Automattic does not explicitly mention WP Engine.
In the waning days, Matt Mullenweg publicly criticized WP Engine for its lack of meaningful contributions to the open-source community, instead offering a “stripped-down” imitation of WordPress that prioritized profit over innovation. WP Engine once more fuelled tensions by accusing Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg of orchestrating a smear campaign against the company, claiming that this tactic has already had a negative impact on some of its business relationships.
A prolonged and contentious struggle for control is poised to unfold between these two parties. The battle is likely to be a specialized one.
