WP Engine hits back after Automattic CEO calls it 'cancer'

Cease'n'desist letter claims top boss demanded tens of millions for trademark license

Updated WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease and desist letter to WordPress maker Automattic, to force the latter's CEO Matthew Mullenweg to stop making allegedly false and misleading claims about WP Engine following a purported trademark license demand.

The letter [PDF] claims Mullenweg called WP Engine a "cancer" and privately threatened to disparage the company if it failed to pay Automattic tens of millions of dollars annually for the use of the 'WordPress' trademark – an amount the letter characterizes as an "astronomical and extortionate monetary demand."

WP Engine reckons it doesn't need to license the word "WordPress," as its use of the mark is covered by fair use.

"Stunningly, Automattic’s CEO Matthew Mullenweg threatened that if WP Engine did not agree to pay Automattic – his for-profit entity – a very large sum of money before his September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, he was going to embark on a self-described 'scorched earth nuclear approach' toward WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond," the letter from WP Engine reads

WordPress is a popular open source content management system used by more than 65 million websites. Mullenweg is one of the two creators of the software and also CEO of Automattic, which operates WordPress.com, a service for hosting WordPress websites.

WP Engine also offers hosting for WordPress websites, but as Mullenweg argued in a blog post last week, "WP Engine is not WordPress." He claims that WP Engine, funded by venture capital firm Silver Lake, is hollowing out the open source world by profiting from WordPress without giving back to the community.

Mullenweg contends that WP Engine, while making "about half a billion in revenue on top of WordPress," sponsors developers to spend 40 hours total a week working on the development of WordPress. Automattic’s sponsorship sees developers spend almost 4,000 hours per week. The Automattic CEO also argues that WP Engine's decision to disable WordPress revisions by default reflects the company's disinterest in customer content.

"They disable revisions because it costs them more money to store the history of the changes in the database, and they don’t want to spend that to protect your content," Mullenweg wrote.

Mullenweg reiterated that point at WordCamp US 2024 last week. "Silver Lake doesn't give a dang about your open source ideals," he said. "It just wants return on capital."

Automattic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WP Engine wants Mullenweg to stop slamming the company and claims the criticism follows from its refusal to agree to millions in annual payments described in the letter as "ostensibly … for a 'license' to use certain trademarks like WordPress, even though WP Engine needs no such license."

According to the letter, WP Engine is allowed to use the WordPress trademark under not only fair use but also the WordPress Foundation's trademark policy, despite the policy's explicit mention of WP Engine for having "never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress."

The WP Engine letter goes on to challenge Mullenweg's assertions about community contributions, trademark infringement, and other claims, while directing Automattic to preserve documents in case of litigation. It further hints at a potential legal claim tortious interference and unfair business practices, but no actual complaint has yet been filed.

WP Engine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ®

Updated to add

On Tuesday evening, Automatic published a cease-and-desist letter that its legal representative sent to WP Engine on Monday. The letter demands that WP Engine stop using its trademarks and also directs the biz to retain documents for possible litigation.

“WP Engine’s unauthorized use of our client’s trademarks also dilutes their rights, tarnishes their reputation, and otherwise harms the goodwill they have established in their famous and well-known trademarks, and has enabled WP Engine to unfairly compete with our client, leading to WP Engine’s unjust enrichment,” the letter states.