WP Engine, the managed internet host lately banned from WordPress.org, has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Automattic, alleging tried extortion in addition to searching for reduction from trademark infringement claims.
The aim of the federal lawsuit is to cease Mullenweg from persevering with to “hurt” WP Engine and the WordPress ecosystem in addition to to carry Mullenweg and Automattic accountable for his or her “damaged guarantees and malfeasance.” Malfeasance refers to wrongful or unlawful conduct which will contain violations of the regulation or unethical actions, significantly by somebody ready of authority.
What The 98 Web page Lawsuit Is About
The TL/DR of the lawsuit is that it’s “about abuse of energy, extortion, and greed.” It states that the open supply WordPress ecosystem was constructed on the promise of the liberty to create with WordPress with none constraints however that these guarantees weren’t saved and that the failure to maintain these guarantees constituted wrongful acts, together with making false statements to the IRS, amongst many different accusations backed up with proof.
WP Engine made the next assertion to Search Engine Journal:
“Matt Mullenweg and Automattic’s self-proclaimed scorched earth marketing campaign in opposition to WP Engine has harmed not simply our firm, however your entire WordPress ecosystem. The symbiotic relationship between WordPress, its group and the companies that make investments thousands and thousands to assist WordPress customers, and advance the ecosystem, is predicated on belief within the guarantees of openness and freedom.
Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the past ten days has uncovered vital conflicts of pursuits and governance points that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that belief. WP Engine has no alternative however to pursue these claims to guard its individuals, company companions, prospects, and the broader WordPress group.”
WP Engine’s lawsuit asks for judgment on these eleven factors:
(1) Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations;
(2) Intentional Interference with Potential Financial Relations;
(3) Laptop Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 et seq.;
(4) Tried Extortion;
(5) Unfair Competitors, Cal. Bus. Prof. Code § 17200, et seq.;
(6) Promissory Estoppel;
(7) Declaratory Judgment of Non-Infringement;
(8) Declaratory Judgment of Non-Dilution;
(9) Libel;
(10) Commerce Libel; and
(11) Slander
Denial Of Trademark Infringement
The lawsuit filed by WP Engine denies the assertion by Mullenweg that the usage of the phrase “WordPress” to consult with the open supply mission is topic to licensing charges, asserting that not solely is the usage of the identify of the mission authorized and needed as a way to talk data that buyers want, WP Engine asserts that the usage of the identify WordPress is freely utilized by your entire WordPress group and that stated use has been condoned by the defendant Mullenweg.
Many instances, lawsuits are received or misplaced based mostly on the proof supplied and WP Engine’s lawsuit provides proof to again up each allegation made in opposition to Mullenweg and Automattic.
For instance, the lawsuit offers proof that WP Engine was not misusing or infringing on the emblems and that Mullenweg had been absolutely conscious of WPE’s use of the challenged phrases.
- WP Engine’s membership within the ‘5 for the Future’ program is an acknowledgment that WPE was not infringing as a result of one of many necessities of membership is to not presently be infringing on emblems
- Matt Mullenweg praised WP Engine on March 21, 2023 on the DE{CODE} developer convention, even though WPE used the challenged phrases on their web site on the time. The lawsuit quotes Mullenweg’s public assertion: “vote along with your pockets. So once you assist firms like WPE, who don’t simply present a industrial service, however are additionally a part of a wider open supply group, you’re saying, hey, I need extra of this on the planet.”
- Matt Mullenweg publicly acknowledged in an X livestream on September 26, 2024 that he knew WP Engine used the phrases “for years” however that he had chosen to not take motion.
Accusation Of False Statements To State Of California
The lawsuit additionally accuses that following the official incorporation of WordPress.org as a non-profit that Mullenweg of publicly transferred the WordPress trademark from Automattic to the non-profit WordPress Basis however then secretly transferred it proper again to Automattic by way of an unique sublicensable license which allowed Automattic to manage the WordPress trademark. This contract between the WordPress Basis and Automattic is the premise of their accusation that Mullenweg had made false statements to the state of California.
The lawsuit asserts:
“Mullenweg did not disclose this unique licensing association between his nonprofit (the WordPress Basis) and his for-profit (Automattic) within the WordPress Basis’s tax filings with the California authorities, claiming that there have been no ‘contracts . . . between [WordPress Foundation] and any officer, director or trustee . . . or with an entity by which any such officer, director or trustee had any monetary curiosity’ …This assertion was false, provided that Mullenweg was a director of the WordPress Basis whereas additionally having a monetary curiosity in Automattic, the entity with which the Basis entered right into a trademark license settlement—an obvious self-dealing transaction constituting inurement beneath federal tax regulation.”
Allegation: Mullenweg Made False Statements To IRS
WP Engine additionally states that Mullenweg has made false statements to the IRS.
The lawsuit paperwork the next:
“It seems Mullenweg additionally didn’t disclose the license settlement within the WordPress Basis’s filings with the IRS, and none of WordPress Basis’s fourteen years of publicly obtainable federal reporting to the IRS signifies that the WordPress Basis was compensated in any type for granting an unique, fully-paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable license for emblems Defendants now declare are extremely useful. Certainly, whereas the Basis has did not ever open up to the IRS its possession of the emblems or existence of the unique royalty-free license to Automattic, for the previous seven years Mullenweg himself executed the IRS varieties on behalf of the Basis beneath penalties of perjury, an obvious false certification to the IRS and public that the Basis’s Varieties 990 have been true, right, and full.”
Moreover, the lawsuit reveals that in 2011 Mullenweg filed IRS varieties claiming that the non-profit WordPress Basis solely had property of $14,071 and made no point out of property like emblems or different IP (mental property).
False Statements About Trademark Possession
One other of the accusations made within the lawsuits is that Mullenweg had made deceptive public statements asserting that the emblems had been transferred to the non-profit WordPress basis, despite the fact that he had secretly transferred the trademark again to Automattic by way of an unique sublicensable license. A sublicensable license is an settlement by which the unique license holder (the licensor) grants a second occasion (the licensee) the suitable to grant a license to a 3rd occasion (the sublicensee).
The lawsuit states:
“In 2010, in response to mounting public concern, the WordPress supply code and emblems have been positioned into the nonprofit WordPress Basis (which Mullenweg created), with Mullenweg and Automattic making sweeping guarantees of open entry for all: “Automattic has transferred the WordPress trademark to the WordPress Basis, the nonprofit devoted to selling and making certain entry to WordPress and associated open supply tasks in perpetuity. Because of this essentially the most central piece of WordPress’s id, its identify, is now absolutely unbiased from any firm.” Mullenweg and Automattic reiterated this promise later, in much more forceful phrases: ‘What’s necessary is that [] longer than I’m alive, longer than Automattic is alive, longer than any of us are alive, there’s something that holds the WordPress code and trademark for the free entry for the world.”
What Defendants’ statements and assurances didn’t disclose is that whereas they have been publicly touting their purported good deed of transferring this mental property away from a non-public firm, and into the secure fingers of a nonprofit, Defendants in reality had quietly transferred irrevocable, unique, royalty-free rights within the WordPress emblems proper again to Automattic that exact same day in 2010. This meant that removed from being “unbiased of any firm” as Defendants had promised, management over the WordPress emblems successfully by no means left Automattic’s fingers. “
WP Engine writes that it relied on the guarantees made when it was based in 2010 as a enterprise constructed round WordPress, investing a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} over the previous 14 years solely to see WordPress turned in opposition to it by the “petulant whims” of Automattic’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg to “inflict hurt” to WP Engine’s enterprise.
Additional claims are made that the request for cost of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for a trademark license (that WPE claims shouldn’t be wanted) got here “with out warning” and that they got solely 48 hours to make the choice to pay or face being banned and “publicly smeared.”
Alleges Mullenweg Controls WordPress Basis For Self-Curiosity
The lawsuit additionally claims that the current occasions at WordCamp and the times thereafter exposes that the non-profit WordPress Basis is an entity that Mullenweg personally controls for his personal and Automattic’s industrial curiosity.
“Mullenweg’s current actions have uncovered and highlighted his lengthy historical past of obfuscating the true info about his management and manipulation of the WordPress Basis and wordpress.org—which he presents as a not-for-profit ‘dot-org’ enterprise, however which in reality he solely owns and directs with an iron fist to additional his personal industrial pursuits in Automattic and related industrial companies, to the detriment of Defendants’ rivals.”
Fallout From Lawsuit
The lawsuit was filed October 2nd and there may be already a reputable report that the WordPress Government Director/Basic Supervisor, Open Supply Division; Automattic, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, has resigned and will probably be making an announcement right now October third. The assertion about this was posted on X by WP Tavern journalist Jeff Chandler who has been concerned with WordPress since 2007.
He tweeted:
“I spoke with Josepha tonight. I can verify that she’s now not at Automattic.
She’s engaged on an announcement for the group. She’s in good spirits regardless of the turmoil.”
I spoke with Josepha tonight. I can verify that she’s now not at Automattic.
She’s engaged on an announcement for the group. She’s in good spirits regardless of the turmoil.
— Jeff (@jeffr0) October 3, 2024
Learn the 98 web page federal lawsuit right here: (PDF)
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Billion Images
