The rivalry within the WordPress industry between Automattic, founded by Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress and provider of wordpress.com, and WP Engine, a WordPress hosting company, continues to unfold. Most recently, Automattic has revealed an agreement proposed to WP Engine on September 20th to confirm that it is not a monetary demand as indicated by WP Engine.
Under this agreement, Automattic allows WP Engine to use the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks under the condition that WP Engine chooses between (1) paying Automattic an 8% revenue share, (2) entering into an 8% revenue agreement but able to pay it as salaries to WP Engine employees who contribute to the WordPress.org project, or (3) combining fee payments from the two aforementioned options.
The agreement also stipulates that WP Engine is prohibited from developing modified versions or forking WordPress. All processes must go through the main WordPress project only.
Nevertheless, WP Engine has decided to counter-sue both Automattic and Matt Mullenweg by filing a complaint in California, alleging that Mullenweg failed to deliver on the promise to make WordPress an open-source project where developers have true freedom to modify. In the past 10 days, he has shown conflicting interests and actions that undermine the credibility of the developer community.
Just last week, WordPress.org blocked access to resources from WP Engine servers in response.
Source: The Verge and TechCrunch
TLDR: Automattic and WP Engine are embroiled in a dispute over the use of WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks, with WP Engine suing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg, alleging a breach of contract regarding the open-source nature of WordPress.
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