Judge hands WP Engine a win in legal fight with Automattic

Updated WordPress hosting firm Automattic and its CEO Matthew Mullenweg have been ordered to stop interfering with the business of rival WP Engine.

California District Court judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction [PDF] against Automattic and Mullenweg, finding that plaintiff WP Engine is likely to prevail in its claims.

WP Engine, which hosts websites for customers using the open source WordPress content management system that Mullenweg co-created, came under fire from Mullenweg after his long-running campaign to convince the firm to pay a royalty fee was rebuffed.

Mullenweg, claiming that WP Engine had taken from the open source WordPress community without giving back, went public with his campaign in September. He disparaged WP Engine at events and online, denied WP Engine-hosted sites access to wordpress.org for plugin updates, urged WP Engine customers to look elsewhere for hosting due to a plugin security vulnerability that Automattic disclosed, and took other actions against the firm.

Mullenweg's behavior divided the WordPress community, prompting some to call for him to step down.

Faced with unrest from employees of Automattic and affiliated entities about his course of action, he designed an "alignment offer" – a severance package to encourage those with opposing views to leave. One hundred and fifty-nine workers did so.

• WP Engine revs Automattic lawsuit with antitrust claim
• WordPress's Automattic openly tracks websites bailing from rival WP Engine
• WordPress forces user conf organizers to share social media credentials, arousing suspicions
• WordPress bans WP Engine from sponsoring or participating in user groups

WP Engine responded with an antitrust lawsuit in early October. That was followed by a request for a preliminary injunction that Automattic challenged with a California anti-SLAPP claim. WP Engine subsequently amended its complaint in November.

In her order, judge Martínez-Olguín directs Automattic and Mullenweg to cease:

The second element of the order appears aimed at preventing actions like the forking of a WP Engine-developed plugin.

The judge has also given the defendants 72 hours to remove the list of purported WP Engine customers posted online, to restore WP Engine's access to wordpress.org, and to restore WPEngine's access to and control of its Advanced Custom Fields plugin directory listing on wordpress.org.

WP Engine did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Automattic told The Register: "Today's ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly. We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits."

The preliminary injunction is to remain in effect until a judgement is entered following the expected trial. ®

Updated to add at 1420 UTC, December 11

After this story was filed, a spokesperson from WP Engine said: "We are grateful that the court has granted our motion for a preliminary injunction. The order will bring back much-needed stability to the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine is focused on serving our partners and customers and working with the community to find ways to ensure a vigorous, and thriving WordPress community."