There is a lot of trouble in the WordPress community, and it looks like it will turn into a trademark fight.
The CEO of Automattic was told to stop publicly criticising WP Engine just one day ago by the WordPress hosting service WP Engine. Now, Automattic has sent a cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine saying that WP Engine has violated several trademarks, including those for WordPress and WooCommerce.
Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress, said last week that WP Engine was taking advantage of the open-source WordPress project to make money. He called it a “cancer to WordPress” and said the company didn’t do much for the community.
Automattic said in a letter dated Monday that WP Engine has made more than $400 million by using its WordPress brand without permission. Automattic says it has the exclusive commercial rights to this trademark from the WordPress Foundation. Also, Automattic said that WP Engine has led customers astray by making them think that there is a direct problem between the two businesses.
“Your illegal use of our clients’ trademarks violates their rights and makes their famous and well-known marks less distinctive.” There have been negative reviews and comments about WP Engine and its products that are being blamed on our client. This is hurting their image and the goodwill they have built up in their marks, the letter said.
This meant that WP Engine could compete unfairly with our Client because you used their intellectual property without permission. This caused them to get rich and make too much money, the letter said.
Automattic also wants WP Engine to pay them back for the money they made by using its trademarks. The company also warned WP Engine that if they don’t settle the dispute peacefully, Automattic will file a legal injunction case.
Here’s a good description of the WordPress community written by my coworker Paul Sawers to set the scene:
WordPress runs more than 40% of the web. Anyone or any business can use the open source project to run their own website, but many companies have sprung up to benefit from it and offer hosting services and technical support. Some of these are Automattic, which Mullenweg started in 2005 to make money off of the project he had started two years before, and WP Engine, a managed WordPress hosting provider that has raised almost $300 million in funding over its 14-year history, with Silver Lake investing $250 million in 2018.
Automattic got a letter telling them to stop using the “WordPress” trademark on Monday. In the letter, WP Engine defended its right to do so under fair use rules. The company also said that Automattic “deeply misunderstands both trademark law and the trademark policy of the WordPress Foundation.”
Automattic was also said to have demanded that WP Engine pay “a significant percentage of its gross revenues—in fact, tens of millions of dollars on an ongoing basis” for the right to use trademarks like “WordPress.”
According to WP Engine’s letter, Mr. Mullenweg kept his threats by making false claims about WP Engine to its workers, customers, and the rest of the world when his unreasonable demands for money were not met.
In particular, Automattic’s letter doesn’t talk about what Mullenweg said about WP Engine.
Mullenweg has said that WP Engine doesn’t give back to the community enough and sells “a cheap knock-off” version of WordPress in the past week. This description was pushed back against by WP Engine, which called Mullenweg out for spreading lies about the company, saying that it had already hurt some of its business.
This could be the start of a long court battle between the two groups. A lot of people also said that this fight could be bad for companies that give specifically WordPress hosting.
The Trademark Policy page for WordPress Foundation was changed earlier today. It now calls out WP Engine, saying that the hosting service has made users confused.
Also Read: Matt Mullenweg Says That Wp Engine is “cancer to WordPress” and Urges People to Switch Hosts
There are no rights for the letters “WP,” so please don’t use them in a way that makes people confused. For instance, a lot of people think that WP Engine really is “WordPress Engine” and is connected to WordPress, but it’s not. “Even though they make billions of dollars off of WordPress, they have never given anything to the WordPress Foundation,” the new page says.
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