Defending Open Source: Our Legal Response to WP Engine’s Meritless Complaint

Automattic, and our CEO Matt Mullenweg, are devoted to the ethos of open source, democratizing publishing through the WordPress platform and protecting the thriving, collaborative ecosystem built around software that powers over 40% of the web. 

Matt and Automattic have granted away significant rights and provided extensive free services—something most individuals and companies would never consider doing—in order to support the WordPress community and to ensure the continued success of the WordPress software platform. WP Engine’s conduct poses a threat to that community.

To ensure the vitality of this vibrant community, Automattic and Matt have filed three separate documents today, including:

Motion to Dismiss WP
Engine’s Complaint

This court filing seeks to dismiss WP Engine’s complaint, filed on October 2, 2024. As we previously stated, Automattic and Matt vehemently deny all of WP Engine’s allegations, which are gross mischaracterizations of reality and focus solely on cherry-picked events of the last two months. 

Additionally, WP Engine’s complaint fails to recognize that Matt attempted to privately resolve the dispute for the good of the community before WP Engine decided to file this lawsuit. 

Read our full Motion to Dismiss filing here.

Motion to Strike (under anti-SLAPP law) 

This court filing seeks to strike certain portions of the complaint that focus on Matt’s personal opinions and other comments, which he has the right to share. Matt has dedicated his professional life to the open source WordPress software platform and the community. Understandably, he talks about these matters with passion and his public comments about WP Engine are his personal opinion as WordPress co-founder. 

WP Engine improperly seeks to impose liability, without any valid basis, over Matt’s comments on an issue of public interest, namely, WP Engine’s negative impact on the WordPress community.

Read our full Motion to Strike filing here.

Opposition to the Preliminary Injunction 

This court filing opposes WP Engine’s request for a preliminary injunction. The WP Engine motion misrepresents that they have been blocked from accessing WordPress software and plugins. They have not at any time been prevented from accessing those resources, and both Matt and Automattic have no problem with the court requiring that to continue as it always has.  Instead, WP Engine is asking that the court force Matt and Automattic to allow WP Engine to host and distribute their plugins on the WordPress.org website for free in the absence of any obligation requiring them to do so.

Further, WP Engine is asking the court to restrict Matt’s right to criticize WP Engine’s negative impact on the WordPress community and to prevent healthy competition which will provide consumers with lower prices and better services. Finally, the damage WP Engine argues it has suffered is self-inflicted and results not from Matt and Automattic’s actions, but from WP Engine’s own poor service. WP Engine has never lost the ability to access the WordPress code and plugins on the Website.

Read our full Opposition to the Preliminary Injunction filing here.

Our Official Statement on the Filings

In addition to these resources, which share critical context on Matt and Automattic’s history as stewards of WordPress, Automattic has issued the following public statement:

“After engaging in conduct that undermines the WordPress community, WP Engine and its private equity owner, Silver Lake, have resorted to making unfounded allegations against the founder and vanguard of the open source software. 

WordPress open source software remains freely available to all. But WP Engine is not entitled, either legally or morally, to have unfettered access to WordPress.org—a website Matt Mullenweg built for the benefit of a robust community.

Preserving and maintaining the resources made available on WordPress.org requires considerable effort, investment, and a shared sense of mission that the plaintiff does not embrace. WP Engine and Silver Lake should not expect to profit off the back of others without carrying some of the weight, and that is all that Matt is asking.”

After these filings, what are the next steps? 

These filings are one meaningful step in defending the open source community and showing how WP Engine’s actions are simply obfuscations based on the strategy that “the best defense is a good offense.” More steps will follow.

For the Preliminary Injunction: WP Engine will submit its reply and the court will hold a hearing on November 26, 2024.

For the Motion to Dismiss WP Engine’s Complaint: We expect that WP Engine will submit its opposition and Matt and Automattic will submit a reply. 

For the Motion to Strike: We expect that WP Engine will submit its opposition and Matt and Automattic will submit a reply. 

We will continue to communicate transparently with the community around updates in this case.