The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is facing a heated debate. The main issue is the battle between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress.
WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers a large portion of the internet – about 40% of websites. Websites can host their own WordPress for example or use a solution provider like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play solution.
In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine a “cancer on WordPress.” He criticized the host for disabling users’ ability to see and track the review history of all posts. Mullenweg believes this feature is “core to the user’s promise to protect your data” and said WP Engine automatically turns it off to save money.
He also called out WP Engine’s investors, Silver Lake, saying that they are not contributing enough to the open source project and that WP Engine’s use of the “WP” brand confused customers into believing it was part of WordPress.
A legal battle
In response, WP Engine sent a cease and desist letter to Mullenweg and Automattic to retract their comments. It also claimed that its use of the WordPress trademark was covered under fair use.
The company said that Mullenweg said it would take a “hot nuclear approach” against WP Engine unless it agreed to pay “a significant percentage of revenue to license the WordPress trademark.”
To answer, Automattic sent yours cease and desist letter to WP Engine, saying they had violated WordPress and WooCommerce trademark usage rules.
The WordPress Foundation also changed its Brand Policy page and called out WP Engine, accusing the hosting service of confusing users.
“The ‘WP’ acronym is not included in the WordPress trademarks, but please do not 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, which it is not. They have never once donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of money off of WordPress,” the updated page reads.
WP Engine ban, public impact, and trademark battle
Mullenweg then blocked WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources. Although features such as plug-ins and themes are covered under an open source license, providers such as WP Engine must run a service to download them, which are not covered under the open source license.
This has broken many websites and banned them updates plug-ins and themes. It also left some of them open to security attacks. The community was not happy with this way of leaving small websites helpless.
In response to the incident, WP Engine said in a post that Mullenweg abused his control of WordPress to disrupt WP Engine customers’ access to WordPress.org.
“Matt Mullenweg’s unprecedented and unauthorized action disrupts the normal functioning of the entire WordPress ecosystem, affecting not only WP Engine and our customers, but all WordPress plugin developers and open source users who rely on WP Engine tools like ACF,” says WP Engine.
On September 27, WordPress.org temporarily lifted the banallowing WP Engine to access resources until October 1st.
Mullenweg wrote a blog post clarifying that the battle is only against WP Engine over trademarks. He said Automattic has been trying to sell a trademark license agreement for some time, but WP Engine’s only response has been to “shut us up.”
The WordPress community and other projects feel that this could also happen to them and want clarification from Automattic, which has an exclusive license to the WordPress trademark. The community is also asking about clear guidance on how they can and cannot use “WordPress.”
The WordPress Foundation, which owns the mark, has also trademarked “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” Developers and suppliers are concerned that if these trademarks are given away, they can be used against them.
Developers have it expressed concern about relying on open source commercial products related to WordPress, especially if their access can go quickly.
Open source content management system The founder of Ghost John O’Nolan also examined this issue and criticized the control of WordPress to have a single person.
“The web needs independent organizations, and it needs more diversity. “40% of the web and 80% of the CMS market should not be controlled by one person,” he said. post X.
On September 30th, the day before WordPress.org’s WP Engine ban deadline, the hosting company updated its site’s footer to clarify that it is not directly affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or in charge of the WordPress trade.
“WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the WordPress® user community. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Use of the words WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® on this website is for identification purposes. only and do not imply endorsement by the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed by, owned by, or affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc,” an updated statement on the site read.
The company also changed its plan names from “Essential WordPress,” “Core WordPress,” and “Enterprise WordPress” to “Essential,” “Core,” and “Enterprise.”
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