WP Engine wins preliminary injunction in WordPress authorized battle

A decide has issued an injunction ordering WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his firm Automattic to revive entry to the WP Engine webhosting service, in keeping with legal documents seen by The Verge. Automattic should additionally restore WP Engine’s management of its common ACF (Superior Customized Fields) plugin. It additionally removes a checkbox applied by Automattic that made individuals say that they had no relationship with WP Engine.

The ruling follows a significant dispute between WP Engine and Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg, a co-founder of WordPress. Final September, Mullenweg accused WP Engine of misusing the WordPress trademark and mentioned it “by no means as soon as” donated to the open-source arm of the inspiration. The WordPress basis then banned WP Engine from accessing sources like plug-ins and themes, breaking a lot of WP Engine’s over 200,000 web sites. It additionally took management of the corporate’s ACF plugin, forking and renaming it to Safe Customized Fields.

WP Engine then sued Automattic and Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of energy. The corporate mentioned that Automattic demanded eight p.c of its gross revenues (or donated worker time) in alternate for restoring its entry. Mullenweg admitted that “an excellent chunk of my Automattic colleagues disagreed with my actions,” and mentioned that 159 staff resigned and took him up on a buyout provide of at the very least $30,000.

Decide Araceli Martinez-Olguin mentioned that WP Engine’s claims that Automattic’s actions harmed its enterprise had benefit. With out the injunction, WP Engine will undergo “irreparable hurt” as a result of it has “suffered lack of current and potential clients,” including that these clients and the bigger WordPress group additionally sustained hurt.

In a put up on X, WP Engine mentioned it is “grateful that the courtroom has granted our movement for a preliminary junction that restores entry to and performance of wordpressdotorg for WP Engine, its clients and its customers.” Automattic, in the meantime, mentioned that it deliberate to file counterclaims “shortly” and “appears to be like ahead to prevailing in trial.” It needs to be famous that whereas offering momentary reduction to WP Engine, the injunction is actually not the top of the authorized actions.