Automattic and Matt Mullenweg have filed a response asking the court to dismiss counts 1-6 and 9-11 of WP Engine’s lawsuit. WP Engine had filed a motion on October 18, 2024 for a preliminary injunction in a Northern California court, seeking restored access to WordPress.org and a reversion to conditions as of September 20, 2024.
In response, Automattic has filed three key documents: a Motion to Dismiss WP Engine’s Complaint, a Motion to Strike, and the Opposition to WP Engine’s Preliminary Injunction.
Automattic also tweeted, “Today, in order to protect the community from the threat posed by @WPEngine’s conduct, we have filed three documents with the court. These documents respond to WP Engine’s cherry-picked versions of events with critical context not found in their legal filings.”
Let’s take a look at the main points in the documents.
Motion to Dismiss WP Engine’s Complaint
The Motion to Dismiss begins with the introduction, “Contrary to the allegations in WP Engine’s Complaint, the perpetrator responsible for the harms against the WordPress community is not Automattic or Matt Mullenweg (“Matt”). It is WP Engine itself. Despite its own (mis)conduct, WP Engine’s Complaint now asks this Court to compel Matt to provide various resources and support to private equity-backed WP Engine for free, in the absence of any contract, agreement, or promise to do so. The Complaint also seeks to restrict Matt’s ability to express openly his perspective that WP Engine’s practices negatively impact the WordPress software platform and community—a platform and community that has been his life’s work. There is no legal or factual basis for the Court to compel such access or restrict such speech.”
The motion argues that “WP Engine’s complaint is full of sound and fury, but WP Engine’s allegations ultimately signify nothing. Beneath the Complaint’s tone of