on friday, WordPress maker Automattic has filed a counterclaim in an October 2024 lawsuit brought by hosting company WP Engine accusing Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg. Defamation and abuse of power. Automattic believes that WP Engine is misusing the WordPress trademark and engaging in deceptive marketing practices without properly giving back to the open source community.
As a result, Automattic took action against WP Engine last year, calling the hosting provider the “cancer of WordPress” and sending it a cease-and-desist letter alleging that WP Engine violated its trademark usage rules. As the battle continued, Automattic banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources and attempted to negotiate a licensing agreement with the host. Automattic alleges that it negotiated the deal in bad faith.
WP Engine ultimately sued Automattic as if it were a victim of Mullenweg’s attack. But according to Automattic’s story, private equity firm Silver Lake invested $250 million in WP Engine and then went from fair use to trademark infringement by calling itself a “WordPress Technology Company” and having its partners call it “WordPress Engine.”
Automattic points out that the hosting company also launched products with names like “Core WordPress” and “Headless WordPress” and claimed to customers that it committed 5% of its resources to supporting the WordPress ecosystem. Automattic claims it never kept those promises. Automattic claims the trademark infringement was intentional, saying WP Engine “only pretended to participate in licensing negotiations, when in fact it delayed and negotiated in bad faith.”
Silver Lake plays a central role in the countersuit, suggesting that the private equity firm’s interests guided many of WP Engine’s actions. Specifically, the counterclaim alleges that WP Engine engaged in trademark infringement because the payment of license fees affected the company’s revenue and valuation, and thus Silver Lake’s expected profits.
The counterclaim also alleges that Silver Lake was trying to sell WP Engine at a valuation of $2 billion, but was unable to find a buyer. Notably, the application states that this included an “offer to Automattic.”
Automattic also claims that WP Engine degraded the consumer experience and product quality in an attempt to cut costs by removing critical features.
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