WP Engine Updates Its Original Legal Complaint Against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg

After Automattic launched the WP Engine Tracker website to monitor the number of websites departing WP Engine hosting, WP Engine updated its ongoing lawsuit against Automattic and its founder, Matt Mullenweg.

The revised document with 144 pages, opens with strong accusations: “This is a case about abuse of power, extortion, and greed. The misconduct at issue is especially troubling because it took place within the WordPress open-source software community, which was built on promises of freedom to build, run, change, and redistribute without barriers or restrictions. Those promises were betrayed by the wrongful actions of a few defendants, to the detriment of the broader community—including WPE.”

The filing continues: “WPE brings this suit to stop the defendants from further harming WPE, its customer relationships, and the entire WordPress ecosystem, and to hold them accountable for their broken promises and misconduct.”

The document also raises concerns about trademark misuse, alleging that the defendants Automattic & Matt have used their claimed trademark to violate antitrust laws. WP Engine claims to have used the terms “WordPress” and “WooCommerce” without issue since 2010 and 2018, respectively, even with Automattic’s knowledge. In fact, Automattic had invested in WP Engine in 2011 and remained an investor until 2018, and the companies maintained regular communications during that period.

The filing highlights an acknowledgment from Mullenweg years back when he publicly stated that WP Engine’s use of “WP” in its company name is entirely proper and serves as an example for other companies: “We ask you to not use WordPress in your domain name, which we’ve done for four years now. So, use like WP, like there’s WPEngine, call it WPEngine instead of WordPressEngine.com or something like that.”

Further, WP Engine argues that Mullenweg’s statements indicate Automattic’s knowledge of their legitimate use of the WordPress name and suggest that the recent trademark infringement claims are a strategy to harm competitors. The suit suggests that Automattic’s actions appear to be a deliberate attempt to undermine WP Engine through anticompetitive tactics.

WP Engine claims these actions are causing severe damage to its business and reputation, including:

Loss of access to WordPress.org functionality.

Customer attrition due to Automattic’s actions.

Costly workarounds as WPE expends significant resources to update plugins and serve customers.

Loss of key products, including the ACF plugin and its millions of users.

Reputational harm and loss of goodwill in the WordPress community.

WP Engine argues that Automattic’s conduct has harmed four key markets relevant to the dispute – Web content management systems, WordPress web hosting services, WordPress custom field plugins and Distribution of WordPress plugins.

The lawsuit asserts that Automattic is attempting to raise costs for competitors by forcing WP Engine and others to pay licensing fees for trademarks Automattic claims to control. This, WP Engine argues, constitutes a violation of antitrust laws by attempting to monopolize key sectors of the WordPress ecosystem.

WP Engine also shared that even their CEO was threatened, and “Automattic has recently escalated its tactics by actively recruiting hundreds of WPE employees, in an apparent effort to weaken WPE by sowing doubts about the company’s future and enticing WPE’s employees to join Automattic.”

The filing invokes multiple legal frameworks, including the Sherman Act, the Lanham Act, California Cartwright Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Automattic tweeted, “WordPress isn’t just a software–it’s a movement. This movement, and the community that powers it, are why WordPress now powers over 40% of the web. That’s why Automattic and @photomatt are taking action to protect it from misuse by those who profit without giving back.” They also published Defending Open Source: Protecting the Future of WordPress.

Meanwhile, the Observer reported that Mullenweg claims the whole saga is a blip within WordPress’s wider mission to defend the democratization of publishing, commerce and messaging. “I’ve been doing this for 21 years and I hope to do it the rest of my life,” he said. “This is a small chapter of a very long journey.”