An escalating feud between WordPress and a third-party entity could threaten the stability of over 40 per cent of websites on the internet. Matt Mullenweg, who is the founder of WordPress and CEO of its parent company Automattic, is at the forefront of the website-building company’s legal battle with WP Engine, a platform that provides hosting services specifically designed for WordPress websites. The fallout from the feud has been severe and mutual, with WordPress’ ban on WP Engine cutting off over 1.5 million websites from accessing WordPress plug-ins, themes, and other features. On the other hand, almost 80 per cent of Automattic/WordPress employees have reportedly quit in disagreement with Mullenweg’s aggressive actions against WP Engine. Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the executive director of the WordPress project, also announced her resignation on October 4, though she did not make any reference to recent developments in her announcement. So, what is the WordPress vs WP Engine tussle all about and what happens next? What is the WordPress ecosystem? The WordPress ecosystem comprises three different entities, namely an open-source project called WordPress.org that is backed by a non-profit organisation called WordPress Foundation and a commercial arm called WordPress.com that is owned by parent company Automattic. The services provided by WordPress.com and WordPress.org are slightly different. WordPress.com hosts users’ websites for free with a custom subdomain name such as mywebsite.wordpress.com, and they have to pay for a custom domain name such as mywebsite.com. Meanwhile, WordPress.org is open-source which means that users can download the WordPress source code for free and build a self-hosted website or use a third-party web hosting service like WP Engine, which is backed by a private equity firm named Silver Lake. Besides heading WordPress.com and Automattic, Matt Mullenweg also leads the non-profit foundation behind WordPress.org. Trademark rights to the WordPress name and logo is owned by the non-profit entity but has been exclusively licenced for use to Automattic. What are the allegations against WP Engine? Calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress”, Mullenweg criticised the web hosting service for disabling a feature that let users see and track the changes made to every post. According to him, WP Engine has disabled WordPress revisions by default to “avoid paying to store that data.” “(WordPress revisions) is very important, it’s at the core of the user promise of protecting your data, and it’s why WordPress is architected and designed to never lose anything,” Mullenweg said in a blog post on September 21. He also claimed that Silver Lake, WP Engine’s investor, hadn’t contributed enough to WordPress.org. Though there is no contractual obligation for users to donate to the open-source project, WordPress requests them to do so. However, the bone of contention is related to the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg has accused WP Engine of using the ‘WP’ brand to mislead customers into believing that it is part of WordPress. WordPress Foundation’s Trademark Policy page has also been updated to state, “The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is ‘WordPress Engine’ and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.” How has WP Engine responded to the allegations? In response to Mullenweg’s blog post, WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic and its CEO to withdraw their comments. It also argued that the WordPress trademark was covered under fair use. Later, Automattic sent its own cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, alleging that it had breached WordPress and WooCommerce trademark usage rules. Mullenweg also banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources. After reports that the ban had disrupted the set-up of a lot of websites, Mullenweg temporarily lifted the ban and gave WP Engine a deadline of October 1 to meet his demands. On September 30, WP Engine updated its site description to state, “The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc.” Additionally, the hosting company said on October 1, that it has deployed its own solution for its customers to update WordPress plug-ins and themes. On October 3, WP Engine sued WordPress for allegedly breaking its promises to run the project as open-source. “Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest 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,” WP Engine was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. What does it mean for WordPress users? Since the conflict, WordPress Foundation has filed for more trademarks such as “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” The lack of clarity around who can and cannot use the WordPress trademark has sparked concerns among other web hosting service providers who offer plans with ‘WordPress’ in their names. Developers are also wary of relying on third-party, WordPress-related products for fear of access being revoked by WordPress.org.
