According to the USPTO, the WordPress Foundation filed to trademark "Managed WordPress" on July 12th. If this trademark is granted, every managed WordPress host worldwide would and could be subject to litigation from Automattic (who apparently holds the only right to use trademarks commercially).
Edited to add: they also applied for "Hosted WordPress" on the same day: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=98646185&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
Wow, wow, wow!!
This is just ridiculous. Matt needs to be removed.
That is some seriously anticompetitive behavior. So, Automattic wants to be the only WordPress hosting provider unless you agree to pay them. IANAL but I believe antitrust laws were made to prevent these types of things.
IMO, it makes sense for the WPF to hold the trademark. It does not make sense, IMO, to commercially license the name to another, for-profit, company. Maybe there was a reason that licensing could not be done through a non-profit?
I wonder what that’ll mean for the domains we own and the use of that since most of us have been using it longer than them
It’s just petty.
Welp, about to make advertising my business a whole lot harder.
The correct course of action for those that have means is to oppose the applications.
That’s really uncool. This will hose hundreds of hosting services and agencies.
I thought Mullenweg was childish for his comments about WP Engine’s lack of contributions to an Open Source project and revisions, but this is taking it too far.
It might be time to fork WordPress and believe it or not, WP Engine could easily do it.
Amazon forked ElasticSearch when ES gave them gruff over a big enterprise using their open source software.
I was willing to hear out Mullenweg, but I’m not in alliance with this at all.
Anti-consumer behavior. Although par for the course with their .com / .org shenanigans
Ehm… how would WPF possibly justify and protect trademarks related to hosting, since… it’s not a hosting provider.
For those wondering [who is on the board of the WordPress Foundation](https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2024/09/24/who-is-on-the-wordpress-foundation-board/), as of its [latest form 990](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/205498932/202302639349300140/full), dated September 20, 2023, there were three members, including Matt Mullenweg.
Another board member, [Mark Ghosh](https://poststatus.com/wordpress-foundation-financials-and-a-separate-wordcamp-organization/), ran a blog that covered WordPress, which Matt Mullenweg bought, Weblog Tools Collection. That blog last posted in 2013 and he apparently worked for the Sherwin Williams paint company after that.
The third member doesn’t appear to have a connection to WordPress. [Chele Chiavacci Farley](https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/chele-farley/) has worked in finance, including private equity, and was a failed Republican candidate in New York federal elections in 2018 and 2020.
The form also says they didn’t get any compensation for their involvement, but did spend an average of an hour a week on related organizations.
…and now it all makes sense. THIS is what Matt was referring to when WP Engine could license the trademark. No company in the world is going to be able to sell WordPress hosting without paying Automattic because you literally won’t be able to market it as WordPress hosting.
Nice way to blow up the WordPress hosting ecosystem. This reminds me of the time Matt was mad because Elementor calls itself a “page builder,” because, obviously, that term has always been reserved for Gutenberg.
They would not be able to retroactively sue companies for a trademark that was recently granted. The hosts would potentially have to strick that term from their marketing usage and may open themselves up to liability with continued use of the term, but none of them would face viable legal action from past usage.
However, the term was in widespread usage before this application, so I struggle to see why the trademark office would grant this application. Granting this trademark would be idiotic. Lawyers are going to have a field day with this.
At this point, why not just remove GPL from WordPress, if you’re going to not let anyone use it.
Years ago there was a similar situation where a company trademarked the common term “morale patch” which had been in use to describe military patches for over 100 years. A couple years after the trademark application was approved, they sued 281 companies that were using the term for $100k each. Fortunately one large company sued back and after some years of legal battle, the trademark was cancelled. WPEngine is large enough and has enough financial backing to do exactly the same thing considering these are generic terms used all over the industry with a long history that predates the trademark application.
Nah, this is a horrible, greedy move.
They’re probably not going to get to trademark that – lots of companies already use the phrase.
I’ll be filing a letter of protest as my company pointing out the generic usage of these terms across the industry for years at this point, the text describes the product or service and the trademark should not be granted.
Seems like what happened last weekend was quite premeditated. The groundwork was laid months in advance.
This reminds me of the ClickFunnels debacle. They are going down. I may move CMS because I don’t have time for childish BS.
Wp being open source and free to use has turned into a bit of wild west. Everyone’s doing whatever they want with it and making huge revenue. I am guessing they want to put these things into some guard rails
Feel free to downvote or disagree – that’s what a discussion is all about.
First, this will not be a thing. You can’t trademark a vague services term like “managed wordpress”. It’s like trying to trademark “ford repair”. Executives having a tissy fight with other executives is all this is. That said, IF it were a thing that actually happened (it won’t be), it would be the end of WP. Well, not the “end”, but the end to its market dominance.
Yikes
This is overreach by the folks at WordPress and every WordPress host should be lawyering up to oppose and protest these applications.
* The trademark in the protested application is a **widely used or commonplace message** and does not function as a trademark.
Here is a handy guide. I am not normally a fan of throwing cash at lawyers, but this is a good enough reason to do so. I told our counsel to file opposition… I really urge others to do so as well.
[https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/trademark-updates-and-announcements/letter-protest-practice-tip#Appropriate%20reasons](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/trademark-updates-and-announcements/letter-protest-practice-tip#Appropriate%20reasons)
Can someone explain this for people who arent following this..
WordPress foundation wants to trademark the term managed wordpress?
How can they trademark something so commonly used?
This is just on the terminology and would still allow a managed hosting by third parties, right? They could just call it “wordpress with managed hosting” or something.
I have managed hosting running wordpress, I assume this is unaffected?
Automattic has filed their counter cease and desist. Thoughts?
[https://automattic.com/2024/09/25/open-source-trademarks-wp-engine/](https://automattic.com/2024/09/25/open-source-trademarks-wp-engine/)
WordPress isn’t going to go around suing agencies for using the term Managed WordPress. They would do that already for using the WordPress term itself. Plus, agencies aren’t flush with cash.
This is strictly to go after WP Engine.