WP Engine wins preliminary injunction in WordPress legal battle

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

The ruling follows a serious 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 stated it “by no means as soon as” donated to the open-source arm of the muse. 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 stated that Automattic demanded eight % of its gross revenues (or donated worker time) in alternate for restoring its entry. Mullenweg admitted that “a very good chunk of my Automattic colleagues disagreed with my actions,” and stated that 159 staff resigned and took him up on a buyout provide of at the very least $30,000.

Choose Araceli Martinez-Olguin stated that WP Engine’s claims that Automattic’s actions harmed its enterprise had advantage. 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 neighborhood additionally sustained hurt.

In a put up on X, WP Engine stated it is “grateful that the court docket 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, stated that it deliberate to file counterclaims “shortly” and “appears ahead to prevailing in trial.” It ought to be famous that whereas offering non permanent aid to WP Engine, the injunction is actually not the tip of the authorized actions.