The latest on the WordPress fight over trademarks and open source
1 min read
Summary
Matt Mullenweg is a vocal founder of WordPress, and the current head of its commercial entity Automattic, which owns WordPress.com.
Mullenweg has been involved in a very public dispute with WP Engine, a competitor in the WordPress hosting space, which ultimately cumulated in WP Engine being blocked from accessing WordPress.org’s servers.
As a result, WP Engine has now filed a lawsuit against Mullenweg, and Automattic, for libel and attempted extortion.
WP Engine is also attempting to get an injunction to block Automattic from using its trademarks.
Last week, Mullenweg deactivated the accounts of a group of contributors to the WordPress project who were planning a new WordPress fork.
In response, Mullenweg said that he was sick and disgusted to be legally compelled to provide free labour to an organisation as parasitic and exploitative as WP Engine.