Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
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Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#2Your honor, I'd like to enter in Exhibit 0 into the records:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYPsyoSbwAACO7X?format=jpg&name=...
Furthermore, apparently Automattic invested money into WP Engine in 2011? Since the principals of Automattic and the Wordpress Foundation are the same, why did they not call trademark violations then (or negotiate a royalty deal for the use of the marks)?
https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/15/silverton-automattic-put-1...
This whole thing is bizarre.
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#3I see this kind of thing all the time with third-party WordPress and WooCommerce plugins, it seems like WP Engine managed to generate enough perceived consumer confusion (looking at the exhibits, frequently in the form of support requests from WP Engine customers posted to official WordPress channels), such that Automattic felt compelled to do something about it. That said, from what I can tell, there are dozens of similarly branded "WP [something]" plugins that engage in a lot of the same "brand-borrowing"--there's probably an actual term for this, but deliberately leaving one's association with WordPress ambiguous to leave open the interpretation that your plugin is more official than it is.
EDIT: changed consumer confusion from "obvious" to "perceived"--I have no idea whether these examples were obvious, and it would likely depend on your own perceptions.
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#4Fantastic，流弊了
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#5I see this kind of thing all the time with third-party WordPress and WooCommerce plugins, it seems like WP Engine managed to generate enough perceived consumer confusion (looking at the exhibits, frequently in the form of support requests from WP Engine customers posted to official WordPress channels), such that Automattic felt compelled to do something about it. That said, from what I can tell, there are dozens of s…
Did WP Engine generate the confusion or was it a lack of consumer understanding of the structure of the Wordpress ecosystem that did that?
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#6"Provide an accounting of all profits from the service offerings that have made
unauthorized use of our Client’s intellectual property;"
How is this determined?
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#7Your honor, I'd like to enter in Exhibit 0 into the records: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYPsyoSbwAACO7X?format=jpg&name=... Furthermore, apparently Automattic invested money into WP Engine in 2011? Since the principals of Automattic and the Wordpress Foundation are the same, why did they not call trademark violations then (or negotiate a royalty deal for the use of the marks)? https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/15/silve…
Out of curiosity, I looked at WP Engine's website, and counted thirty uses of "WordPress" (before I stopped counting), as well as at least a few uses of "WooCommerce". I am only casually following this dispute, but WP Engine does seem to be using the branding. That said, "WordPress" may be descriptive (I'm not sure whether it is).
edit: I did not address the investment component of the parent comment, as that was added after my comment was posted
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#8I see this kind of thing all the time with third-party WordPress and WooCommerce plugins, it seems like WP Engine managed to generate enough perceived consumer confusion (looking at the exhibits, frequently in the form of support requests from WP Engine customers posted to official WordPress channels), such that Automattic felt compelled to do something about it. That said, from what I can tell, there are dozens of s…
Did WP Engine generate the confusion or was it a lack of consumer understanding of the structure of the Wordpress ecosystem that did that?
Fair point. I'd be interested to learn where those distinctions are drawn, legally speaking?
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#9It’s going to get really spicy in here if the EFF stands up for a private equity company, but this is pretty clearly an important open source issue.
Re: Open Source, Trademarks, and WP Engine
#10I know we're not going to get a response, but I'm really curious to hear what the explanation for the allegations covered by WP Engine's Cease and Desist sent to Automattic just yesterday, before this one:
https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Cease-and-De...
There's two sides to every story but sincerely, something seems... very wrong.