There is a big fight going on in the world of WordPress, which is one of the most famous tools for building and hosting websites. There is a fight going on between Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, and WP Engine, which runs WordPress-built websites.
The WordPress platform is free and open source, and it runs about 40% of all blogs on the internet. Websites can run their own WordPress instance or use a solution provider like Automattic or WP Engine to get a solution that is ready to use right away.
In a blog post from the middle of September, Mullenweg said that WP Engine was “cancer to WordPress.” He said the host was wrong for not letting users see and follow the path of changes to every post. This function, according to Mullenweg, is “at the core of the user promise to protect your data.” He also said that WP Engine turns it off by default to save money.
He also said that Silver Lake, an investor in WP Engine, doesn’t do enough to help the open source project and that WP Engine’s use of the “WP” brand has led people to think it is part of WordPress.
The Court Case
In response, WP Engine told Mullenweg and Automattic to take down their comments by sending them a letter that said “do not respond.” It also said that the way it used the WordPress brand was in line with the law of fair use.
The business said Mullenweg had threatened to “use the nukes to destroy” WP Engine if it didn’t agree to give the company “a large portion of its profits to license the WordPress trademark.”
Automattic sent WP Engine its own letter telling them to stop using WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks, saying that WP Engine had broken the rules.
It also made changes to its Trademark Policy page and called out WP Engine, saying that the hosting service has made things confusing for users.
There are no trademarks for the letters “WP,” but 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.
A Ban On WP Engine, Effects On The Community, And A Trademark Fight
Mueller then stopped WP Engine from using WordPress.org’s tools. You can get things like plug-ins and themes for free under an open source license, but the open source license doesn’t cover the service providers like WP Engine have to run to get them.
A lot of websites broke because of this, and they couldn’t update their styles and plug-ins. That also let hackers get into some of them. The community didn’t like how this method left small websites with no power.
In reaction to what happened, WP Engine said in a post that Mullenweg had abused his power over WordPress to make it hard for WP Engine customers to access WordPress.org.
WP Engine said that Matt Mullenweg’s action, which has never been seen before and was not justified, interferes with the normal operation of the entire WordPress ecosystem. This affects not only WP Engine and our customers, but also all WordPress plugin writers and open source users who depend on WP Engine tools like ACF.
In a blog post, Mullenweg made it clear that the fight is only over patents with WP Engine. He said that Automattic has been trying for a long time to work out a deal to license a brand, but WP Engine has only been able to “string us along.”
The WordPress community and other groups think this could happen to them too, and they want Automattic, which owns the trademark for WordPress, to explain what’s going on. People in the community also want clear rules about what they can and cannot do with “WordPress.”
“Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress” have also been put forward for trademark by the WordPress Foundation, which owns the name. Developers and service providers are afraid that these rights could be used against them if they are approved.
Also Read: Wp Engine Gets a “cease and Desist” Letter From Automattic for Stealing the WordPress Name
Developers are worried about using paid open source products that are connected to WordPress, especially since users can lose access to these products quickly.
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