Court orders to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress

A California court has ordered Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org themes, plugins, and subdomains to the state they were in on September 20. The court also ordered Automattic to remove the list of former WP Engine customers from the website WordPressenginetracker.com and take down the “affiliated with WP Engine” checkbox on the WordPress.org login page.  

“Today’s ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly. We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits,” Automattic said in an X post on November 11.

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider involved in a legal battle with Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com and co-creator of WordPress software.

Tensions between WordPress and WP Engine spilled in public in September after Mullenweg criticized WP Engine, called them “cancer to WordPress” and urged users to switch providers. Subsequently, Automattic revoked WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, which WP Engine claims forced its customers to update plugins and themes manually or seek other solutions. This affected their ability to maintain websites and also exposed them to potential security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues.

After sending a cease and desist order from making damaging comments against them, WP Engine filed a preliminary injunction against Automattic in October to prevent Mullenweg’s attempts to block WP Engine’s access to the WordPress community. The injunction was amended by WP Engine in November to include antitrust claims.

To alienate WP Engine further, WordPress.org implemented a new disclosure requirement during the login and registration process. This checkbox asked users to confirm if they are “not affiliated with WP Engine.” WP Engine claimed that the disclosure requirement created confusion in the WordPress community.

Mullenweg has refuted WP Engine’s antitrust and other allegations and argued that WP Engine does not deserve unfettered access to WordPress.org, a website he created for the benefit of the open source community. Mullenweg has argued that WP Engine and its private equity owner Silver Lake are profiting from his work without giving back.

WordPress was founded in 2003 as an open-source platform to publish blogs. It is now the most popular website builder platform and it is believed that 40% of all websites on the Internet are built and managed on it.

Over the years, various businesses have started to offer hosting services and technical support based on this framework. It includes Mullenweg’s company Automattic, which he started in 2005 to monetize the project, and  WP Engine which was founded in 2010 by Jason Cohen and Ben Metcalfe.

 Mullenweg has held that the long-term health of the WordPress project depends on community support and it can only grow if those who have benefited from it are contributing regularly to it.

“Any business making hundreds of millions of dollars off of an open source project ought to give back, and if they don’t, then they shouldn’t misuse its trademarks,” said Mullenweg in a blog post.

In addition to criticizing WP Engine for profiting from the open source project, Mullenweg has accused them of trademark misuse, especially in product names and marketing, which has blurred the lines between WP Engine’s services and core WordPress platform, leading to confusion among customers.

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