news Automattic sent the following cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine

[Cpvr]

Yesterday, Automattic sent the following cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, outlining WP Engine’s pattern of unauthorized usage of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks and demanding that WP Engine stop such behavior.

WP Engine’s business model is based on extensive and unauthorized use of these trademarks in ways that mislead consumers into believing that WP Engine is synonymous with WordPress. It’s not.

This is trademark abuse, not fair competition.

The full letter is below, followed by exhibits.

WPEngine Letter
WPEngine Letter Exhibits

Source: https://automattic.com/2024/09/25/open-source-trademarks-wp-engine/

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838738065675677993

Rundown:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838573806476247042

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838230076179050765

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838350670564377051

 

[Harsh World]

This is trademark abuse, not fair competition.

With as long as WordPress has been around, I don't think that WordPress should have a hold on "WP" to describe a product that expands on it.

However, the same could be said about Cloudflare. They have some pretty tight rules on how you can use their trademark when developing anything for them too.

It's a losing battle, so I would just rename it to something like Blogging Engine or drive it down to just "Core". I'm sure they have enough people on their mailing list that would know the name change, and have no problem acquiring new customers.

 

[ActionAce]

It’s been a while since I heard about trademark abuse. There was a point I thought nothing like that existed anymore, but thanks to automattic's cease-and-desist letter addressing and bringing back this to limelight as an awareness again. The letter to WP Engine tells more about the impact of trademark abuse, which sounds cool to me.

 

[Unvarnished]

I was so fascinated when I came across the news and it's perhaps the best I have heard in recent times. I think it's a great offense to mislead the consumer, which should definitely come with a stiff penalty. I wish I could read the details of the content in that letter. Do you have the link to the read?

 

[Harsh World]

The letter to WP Engine tells more about the impact of trademark abuse, which sounds cool to me.

I just don't think that it's trademark abuse if it's a product to serve mainly for another product.

Let's say Nike made shoes out of a very specific material that no other shoes used. I believe Nike® Shoe Cleaner would be a very good name over Shoe Cleaner (For best results on Nike shoes). It explains to the public that their formula of shoe cleaner works best on Nike in the name, which stands out more, than on the label getting lost between other shoe cleaners.

I think it's a great offense to mislead the consumer

I just don't see them misleading the consumer. They're not saying that they're WordPress, rather they make a product that enhances your WordPress site, from what I gather.

Just feels like big money pushing a smaller company out of existence so that they could perhaps develop something as good, or better, and be able to sell it on their WordPress.com hosting solutions.

 

[Cpvr]

Wordpress banned WPengine from being used on Wordpress.org

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839076201890984397

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839070322617643212

 

[Harsh World]

Wordpress banned WPengine from being used on Wordpress.org

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839076201890984397

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839070322617643212

Now that's a bully move.

They should've done that after litigation was finalized.

 

[Cpvr]

Now that's a bully move.

They should've done that after litigation was finalized.

Interesting. This could be possible too.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1840312049747816633

https://twitter.com/x/status/1841153053321236636

 

[Harsh World]

Interesting. This could be possible too.

If it's good for both parties, then I'm all for it to get it settled.

However, it does set a precedence for other hosts that solely focus on WordPress instances. It says, "If you get too big, we'll do everything in our power to take it from you for as little as we can."

 

[Immortal]

Trademark infringements is a great crime, intellectual property theft is a crime and no one should be allowed to let go easily. By the way. I do not remember using any WP Engine products.