Judge orders WordPress parent company to stop blocking WP Engine

Fight over WordPress licensing profits intensifies

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Why it matters: A legal feud between the co-founder of WordPress and a private equity-owned WordPress hosting platform has taken a sharp turn in favor of the latter. WP Engine users can resume normal operations but remain stuck in the crossfire of a fight that could impact tools critical to many websites.

A California judge has granted hosting platform WP Engine a temporary injunction against WordPress parent company Automattic. Until the court battle between them is resolved, WordPress.com can no longer block WP Engine from accessing its toolchain.

The court confirmed the injunction partly out of concern for WP Engine users, who aren't involved in the legal war between the platform and Automattic. Blocking WP Engine prevented users from viewing WordPress.com updates and accessing other crucial tools. WP Engine praised the ruling, saying it preserves the stability essential for collaboration within the WordPress community.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg founded WordPress, an open-source content management system that runs around 40 percent of websites. In September, he accused WP Engine, a hosting service that uses WordPress tools, of profiting by tricking customers into equating it with WordPress. In a scathing attack, he called the platform, which received most of its initial investment from private equity firm Silver Lake, a "cancer" on WordPress.

WP Engine retaliated with a cease-and-desist, defending its use of the WordPress name under fair use and demanding that Mullenweg stop his defamatory statements. Automattic, claiming exclusive WordPress Foundation rights, responded by blocking WP Engine from using WordPress.org software and imposing a paid licensing fee equaling eight percent of WP Engine's monthly revenue.

The WordPress Foundation is a non-profit supporting WordPress.org, the open-source set of tools underpinning WordPress.com, the free service many websites use. Although the main dispute is about who has the right to profit from WordPress, it has also ignited discussion over the meaning of the term "open source."

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David Hansson, creator of the open-source web framework Ruby on Rails, claimed that Automattic's trademark claim goes against the spirit of open-source development and the GNU General Public License (GPL). By charging royalties, Automattic is theoretically treating WordPress.org as proprietary rather than open-source software, which could damage the credibility of the GPL and the Free Open Source Software movement.