Automattic planned to target 10 competitors with royalties, WP Engine wants for new listings.

Web hosting company WP Engine has filed an amended complaint and raised new grounds in its statement an ongoing legal battle and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic (the parent company of WordPress.com). The company now says Mullenweg wants to go after 10 different companies with royalty payments for using the WordPress trademark and is trying to get payment processor Stripe to cancel its contract with WP Engine.

At the heart of the debate, Mullenweg believes that WP Engine is gain from the open source WordPress project without any return to the community, and required the company to pay 8% of its monthly revenue as a fee for using the WordPress version.

suits, it was saved for the first time and WP Engine in October 2024Automattic and Mullenweg’s case defamation and abuse of power. Automattic wrote its own objections last year, alleging that the hosting company had been misusing the WordPress trademark and engaging in fraudulent marketing.

In the new filing, WP Engine has amended its complaint for the third time after receiving information that was disclosed during the discovery process. The notice, which is now unedited, was previously published at Automattic’s request.

Of course, one of the new features calls out Automattic that they are planning to target another 10 competitors with similar royalty claims that target WP Engine.

The complaint also states that Newfold, a company whose portfolio includes hosting providers such as Bluehost and HostGator, among others, is already paying Automattic to use its trademarks and that Automattic is negotiating with others. (The names of the recipients were also redacted in the complaint, which described email conversations between the companies and Mullenweg.)

WP Engine also reports that Mullenweg contacted a Stripe executive via email to pressure the company into canceling the WP Engine contract. This happened after WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic, the complaint says.

The selection also argues that the 8% royalty is fixed. Description of Mullenweg’s comments at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024WP Engine claims that Automattic’s founder came up with the price because it was what he thought WP Engine “could pay.”

At Disrupt, Mullenweg responded to a question about how he paid the 8% fee by saying it was based on a “business analysis.”

“If you estimate it would have been about $32 million – it would have been in the right direction, and based on our estimates, and the discussions that have taken place over the last 18 months, we felt that this was sufficient,” he said. he said at the event.

Some of the new information in the document is about Mullenweg’s aggressive language used against WP Engine, such as threats that if the web provider does not comply, they will start stealing their customers. “If they don’t take the carrot, we’ll give them the stick,” for example, is one of the phrases mentioned in internal letters at Automattic.

The complaint also includes allegations that Mullenweg used the term “nuclear war” to describe his strategy against WP Engine.

When asked about the new filter, Automattic shared the following statement with TechCrunch: “There is nothing new here. This is what WP Engine has been pushing for over a year, and the Court has already rejected its central claim. The case is not going anywhere. The latest post just repeats the same tired claims in an attempt to keep the issue alive. I believe that the courts will continue to reject the theory.”