The plot thickens. WP Engine has sued Matt Mullenweg and Automattic. WPE's X post states:
Matt Mullenweg and Automattic’s self-proclaimed scorched earth campaign against WP Engine has harmed not just our company, but the entire WordPress ecosystem. The symbiotic relationship between WordPress, its community and the businesses that invest millions to support WordPress users, and advance the ecosystem, is based on trust in the promises of openness and freedom.
Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interests and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust. WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community. Like so many of you, we love WordPress and are committed to the stability and longevity of the community.
Read the complaint here: https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Complaint-WP-Engine-v-Automattic-et-al.pdf
@rolle This is unbelivable. Really sad episode around one of the most important and publicly known pieces of FLOSS software there is...
@rolle Any hints on anyone forking and rebranding yet?
@Elias Doesn't affect to my use of WordPress, in my mind this is a completely separate battle from the software. There are forks already, but why should someone create a fork because of this...?
@rolle To avoid this nonsense trademark battle for instance. :)
@Elias Doesn't affect self hosters one bit.
@rolle Yep. You're righr about that. Majority of WP or Woocommerce users are not self hosters, though.
@rolle
my 2 quick takeaways:
1. WPE doesn't have as clear-cut a case as they seem to have initially hoped: Automattic does hold trademarks that had been presumed to belong to the WP foundation. (Is that actionable? IANAL.)
2. IMO this actually makes Mullenweg & Automattic look WORSE, ethically, because of the 14 years of lying about WordPress trademarks & WordPress dot org indepedence.
@rolle Wow, this is quite a development!
Let’s hope for a resolution that benefitcomplaints the entire community!
Thanks for sharing the complaint!