WordPress co-founder asks court to dismiss WP Engine’s lawsuit

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his institution Automattic person asked a tribunal to disregard WP Engine’s suit accusing them of libel and extortion. In a filing connected Wednesday, Mullenweg argues that WP Engine is conjuring claims “out of ineligible bladed air,” portion alleging it continues to usage the WordPress trademark “in unauthorized ways.”

Earlier this month, the third-party WordPress hosting work WP Engine filed a suit against Automattic and Mullenweg aft the enforcement embarked connected a “scorched world nuclear” campaign against it. In summation to accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, Mullenweg claimed the work doesn’t lend capable to the open-source WordPress.org project, which Mullenweg besides controls. WordPress.org besides chopped disconnected WP Engine’s entree to its resources and aboriginal took implicit 1 of its astir fashionable plugins.

As noted successful the filing, Mullenweg claims helium has “no work to provide” WordPress.org’s resources to WP Engine. “The specified information that WP Engine made the risky determination to basal its increasing concern connected a tract to which it has nary rights oregon warrant of access, without making backup plans, is not capable for it to conjure a assertion retired of ineligible bladed air,” the filing reads.

Mullenweg goes connected to assertion WP Engine has “chosen without justification to onslaught Automattic and Matt,” contempt allegedly having “no ineligible (or moral) rights” to WordPress.org’s escaped services.

This precise nationalist spat has raised concerns among developers crossed the WordPress ecosystem who present interest whether they, too, could get chopped disconnected from WordPress. But Mullenweg doesn’t look excessively disquieted astir the impact. During an interrogation astatine TechCrunch’s Disrupt event connected Wednesday, Mullenweg said his combat against WP Engine is “obviously” worthy the risk.

A proceeding for WP Engine’s lawsuit against WordPress is presently scheduled for adjacent March.