WordPress Drama: Crossfire
Automattic faces a cease-and-desist letter over alleged trademark violations concerning WP Fusion Lite. But it really does look like their use could be classified as "fair use." If not, any WordPress site using the .org repo is also in volation ...
In the wake of the ongoing legal battles with WP Engine, another company has published a cease-and-desist letter against Automattic and WordPress.com1Note that this is against the paid hosting platform, not the free plugin repository! for the alleged unauthorized use of their trademarks.
We've just filed a cease and desist letter against @automattic and @wordpressdotcom for unauthorized use of our @wpfusion trademark at https://t.co/IZltNmCg82 pic.twitter.com/Swa0r9iq8A
The frustrating thing here is that it’s not WordPress.com directly advertising or attempting to create any confusion about the use of the WP Fusion brand. Like any other WordPress host, WordPress.com is availing free plugins delivered on the WordPress.org repository to their customers.
The WP Fusion Lite plugin is built, maintained, and published by Very Good Plugins, the owners of the trademark. They publish this plugin to the WordPress.org repository and any WordPress installation has access to it. In fact, even within my own site I see the same details as provided on WordPress.com!
