Web hosting provider WPEngine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of racketeering and abuse of power. The lawsuit comes after Mullenweg, who is also the CEO of Automattic, has been wrangling for nearly two weeks with WPEngine over trademark infringement and contributions to the open source WordPress project.
WPEngine accuses Automattic and Mullenweg of not living up to their promise to run the WordPress open source project without any restrictions and give developers the freedom to build, run, modify and redistribute the software.
"Matt Mullenweg's conduct over the past ten days exposed significant conflicts of interest and management issues that, if allowed to proceed, could destroy that trust. WPEngine has no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect its employees, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community."
The lawsuit, filed in a California court, also accuses Mullenweg of "a long history of obfuscation" to conceal his control of the WordPress Foundation and WordPress.org.
Mullenweg has criticized WPEngine for infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademark rights. He called WPEngine the "cancer of WordPress" and blasted WPEngine's private equity partner Silver Lake for not caring about the open source community.
WPEngine subsequently sent letters to Mullenweg and Automattic asking them to withdraw the comments. Automattic then sent its own cease and desist letter, accusing WPEngine of infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Notably, Mullenweg on September 25 blocked WPEngine from accessing WordPress.org resources, including plugins and themes, and prevented WPEngine customers from updating them. Two days later, Mullenweg provided temporary relief, unbanning WPEngine until October 1.
On Wednesday, Automattic released a seven-year draft of the terms, which it sent to WPEngine on September 20, requiring the hosting company to pay 8% of its gross revenue each month as royalties for the use of its WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Additionally, WPEngine has the option to earn 8% in return by sending employees to contribute to core WordPress features and functionality, or by combining hours and money.
WPEngine has not accepted these terms, which include a ban on plugins and extensions that fork Automattic and WooCommerce.
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