metamichael

It's clear from what he's saying that Automattic once OWNED the trademarks, but transferred those trademarks to the WordPress Foundation, and thus Automattic is NO LONGER THE OWNER of said trademarks.

What Automattic has is an exclusive license to use and sell the commercial licenses of the trademark.

WordPress Foundation: Owns the trademark

Automattic: Owns the commercial right to use and sell the license

This is done because the WordPress Foundation is non-profit. The legal intricacies of this have been worked out a long time ago. You want to use the WordPress license? Then you'll have to buy it from Automattic.

And the WordPress Foundation isn't being sued either. So the trademark wouldn't be up for grabs either way. It's just a bunch of laymen LARPing lawyers.

Why are you blaming this on Matt? WP Engine could've diffused this situation from the very beginning. It's WP Engine's responsibility to provide their customers with a secure hosting environment, not Matt's.

WP Engine is not entitled to any service provided or distributed by the Matt or the WordPress Foundation.

WP Engine and their owners, Silver Lake, are setting a dangerous precedent by refusing to contribute and getting away with it. And the only way for Matt to stop this cancer from spreading is to hit them where it hurts: their bottom line, which means their clients.

You can cry for the lost lives of "compassionate and dedicated fathers" who fought against the Alliance during World War II. It doesn't mean that the USA was wrong when attacking Normandy. Likewise, Matt isn't wrong here.