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Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by kijin on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:03AM (#41671351)
But WPEngine is toeing the line especially precariously.

The company is called WPEngine, sure, but their tagline says "Most trusted WordPress platform". Their plans are named "Essential WordPress", "Core WordPress", etc. Are those products they're selling, or just descriptions? There's enough gray area there to attract a lawyer's attention, which Mullenweg is clearly using to his advantage.

Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by graeme on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:08AM (#41671404)
The proper response would be a suit to enforce a trademark, not an explosion of articles, interviews, shutdown of network access and demands for money paid to a private company in order to prevent the explosion.
Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by cj on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:33AM (#41671764)
> The proper response would be a suit to enforce a trademark

Which I believe was their legal response. The problem is it should have stopped there.

I'm sure Matt's lawyers aren't very happy with him at the moment. Legally, it's usually not advantageous to retaliate so strongly and publicly. It greatly muddies the legal waters.

Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by flutas on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:46AM (#41671970)
> Which I believe was their legal response

Really? I see extortion in those texts, not a legal lawsuit to enforce a trademark.

I mean, is this a legal and well crafted lawsuit? Or just extortion.

> Just called. Should I run these slides or not?

> Is next week a negotiation on the % or it happening at all? I am not going to be able to walk it back

> I know that this is the nuclear option, it sets us down a specific path

Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by Aurornis on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:06AM (#41671380)
Honestly, what do you expect these people to call their services?

“Essential Blog Hosting Service using a Commonly Used Open Source Software That We Cannot Name”?

Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by graeme on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:09AM (#41671416)
Yeah nominative use explicitly covers this.

>"In other words, individuals are not compelled by trademark law to use "absurd turns of phrase" simply to avoid trademark liability."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_use

Re:WordPress Drama: From the Sidelines by FireBeyond on Friday September 27, 2024 @11:40AM (#41671870)
"Welcome to the Something Like A Hyper Plate for 2024".