It's been a minute since we've talked about the Matt Mullenweg vs WP Engine beef — and that's a good thing for the WordPress community because, for a while, it was getting embarrassing. However now some new information has surfaced.
PPC Land reports that Automattic filed comprehensive counterclaims against WP Engine for engaging in “deliberate misappropriation of WordPress-related trademarks” following Silver Lake's 2018 acquisition of a controlling interest in the company. The document details how WP Engine allegedly “sought to inflate its valuation and engineer a quick, lucrative exit” through systematic trade infringement.
Here's a brief timeline of events regarding the Automattic vs WP Engine beef:
- In September 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called out WP Engine at the WordCamp US event for not contributing enough to the WordPress open source project, claiming that Silver Lake doesn't care about the WP ecosystem and only cares about making money. He encouraged users to switch hosts and get off WP Engine.
- Following the event, he continued to speak publicly against WP Engine.
- WP Engine quickly sent a “cease and desist” letter to Automattic, demanding that Mullenweg stop making and retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements against the company.
- A few hours later, Automattic responded with its own “cease and desist” letter to WP Engine, demanding that the host stop “improperly using” the trademarked terms “WordPress” and “WooCommerce,” which it says causes confusion amongst customers.
- It became public that prior to kicking off the beef with WP Engine at WordCamp, Mullenweg demanded either 8% of WPEngine's $400M annual revenue to license the trademarks, or an equivalent amount of developer hours donated to The WordPress Foundation.
- Shortly after, in retaliation of the “cease and desist” letter, Mullenweg blocked access to the WordPress.org Plugin Repository for WP Engine's 1M+ customers and updated their trademark policy to include instructions on proper use of “WP,” specifically calling out WP Engine on the page.
- Not everyone at Automattic agreed with Mullenweg on the way he was handling things with WP Engine, so he cleaned house of all dissent at the company by offering employees the option to resign immediately and receive $30k or six months of salary, or stay and kiss his ring.
- Eventually a judge required that Mullenweg backpedal on some of his retaliatory changes during the ongoing legal battle, which hasn't seen many updates since then.
Flash forward to Oct 23rd, 2025…
Automattic is alleging in its new counterclaim:
- WP Engine “sought to inflate its valuation and engineer a quick, lucrative exit” through systematic trademark infringement.
- WP Engine abandoned its fair usage of the WordPress trademarks following Silver Lake's investment.
- WP Engine anointed itself as “The WordPress Technology Company” and allowed partners to refer to it as “WordPress Engine.”
- WP Engine committed 5% of its resources to supporting the WordPress project, but never kept its promise.
- These actions were “not isolated branding choices but a coordinated scheme to misappropriate the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks, mislead consumers, and inflate WP Engine's valuation for an anticipated sale.”
- By 2024, Silver Lake's strategy to inflate its valuation and sell for more than $2B was failing, as no buyer valued the company near that amount.
The lawsuit between Automattic and WP Engine will continue in the Northern District of California, with more news to come. I'll keep you posted in the future as I learn more.