Filed: WP Engine Inc. v Automattic Inc. and Matthew Charles Mullenweg [pdf]

"What Defendants’ statements and assurances did not disclose is that while they were publicly touting their purported good deed of moving this intellectual property away from a private company, and into the safe hands of a nonprofit, Defendants in fact had quietly transferred irrevocable, exclusive, royalty-free rights in the WordPress trademarks right back to Automattic that very same day in 2010. This meant that far from being “independent of any company” as Defendants had promised, control over the WordPress trademarks effectively never left Automattic’s hands."

Already on the second page, a mind-blowing revelation. This is gold. What a time to be alive.

Um this seems pretty horrendous (from a moral PoV, no idea about legal), at the time Mullenweg apparently said

> Automattic has transferred the WordPress trademark to the WordPress

> Foundation, the nonprofit dedicated to promoting and ensuring access to WordPress and related

> open source projects in perpetuity. This means that the most central piece of WordPress’s identity,

> its name, is now fully independent from any company."

But then the complaint says:

> What Defendants’ statements and assurances did not disclose is that while they were

> publicly touting their purported good deed of moving this intellectual property away from a private

> company, and into the safe hands of a nonprofit, Defendants in fact had quietly transferred

> irrevocable, exclusive, royalty-free rights in the WordPress trademarks right back to Automattic that very same day in 2010. This meant that far from being “independent of any company” as Defendants

> had promised, control over the WordPress trademarks effectively never left Automattic’s hands."

Again, no idea about the legality of saying you've done one thing in public, but functionally ensuring that the actual result is the opposite, but morally that's pretty gross.

If it's any three things, it's about money, money, and money.

Zooming out a bit, Automattic acquired Tumblr and like all those before it seems to be choking on it.

Competitors like Wix, Squarespace, WebFlow and Shopify are all nipping at WordPress' marketshare.

I don't know what WordPress.com's stats look like, but blogging is out of sytle. New cool kids want the new black. That is to be social media influencers. Along the same lines, the WordPress Community is "aging out". Events online or off there's too little "youth" engaged and excited about the product.

In shoet, the pie isn't what it once was. Matt looked around the room, saw deep pockets (i.e., WP Engine) and made a go for it. That was a poor decision. Seeing himself as a cult leader who would get unwavering support from his cult (aka The WordPress Community) was another mistake. People are fatigued and enough them have stopped drinking his Kool Aid. There are pockets of support but certainly not what it used to be. Many WP people are anxious to move on from the Mattopoly.