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Title: WordPress co-founder files countersuit against WP Engine over
trademark violations

Link: https://www.engadget.com/social-media/wordpre...

There's been another turn in Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt
MullenwegΓÇÖs ongoing legal battle with WordPress provider WP Engine. In a
counterclaim Automattic filed as part of WP Engine's lawsuit against the
company, it claims investment from private equity firm Silver Lake led WP
Engine to violate its trademarks and fail to contribute to the open-source
WordPress project.

Automattic believes that following a $250 million investment from Silver
Lake, which gave the firm a controlling interest in WP Engine, the hosting
provider "sought to inflate its valuation and engineer a quick, lucrative
exit." It allegedly did that, per the counterclaim, by describing itself as
the "WordPress Technology Company" and allowing its partners to refer to it
as "WordPress Engine," violations of the WordPress trademark. Automattic
claims products WP Engine released like "Core WordPress" and "Headless
WordPress" further obfuscated the companyΓÇÖs role, while WP Engine also
failed to commit a promised "five percent of its resources to support the
WordPress project."

The counterclaim goes on to say that Automattic and Mullenweg tried to work
out these issues with WP Engine by offering a "fair trademark license," but
the company only "pretended to engage in licensing discussions," while
actually delaying any kind of agreement because it would "impact its
earnings." Keeping earnings up was important to WP Engine because Silver Lake
was allegedly trying to sell WP Engine at a $2 billion valuation, and had
even made "overtures to Automattic" about it.

WP Engine provided the following statement to Engadget:

WP EngineΓÇÖs use of the WordPress trademark to refer to the open-source
software is consistent with longstanding industry practice and fair use under
settled trademark law, and we will defend against these baseless claims.

AuttomaticΓÇÖs countersuit tells a different story than the one WP Engine
spun in its original lawsuit against the company, which accused Mullenweg of
"abuse of power, extortion and greed." WP Engine's original complaint claimed
that Automattic asked the company for eight percent of its monthly revenue as
a royalty payment. Mullenweg's attempts to punish WP Engine were seen as so
aggressive at the time that over 100 Automattic employees voluntarily left
the company in response. WP Engine won a preliminary injunction in response
to its lawsuit, but it seems like the story might be more complicated than it
originally appeared.

Update, October 24, 3:35PM ET: Clarified AutomatticΓÇÖs relationship to open-
source WordPress. The company is not WordPressΓÇÖ creator.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/wordpre...
against-wp-engine-over-trademark-violations-182123619.html?src=rss

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