The “WordPress” battle is now a lawsuit

Web hosting service WP Engine is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Automattic for alleged defamation and attempted extortion following a public dispute over the WordPress brand and open source project. In the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, WP Engine accuses both Automattic and its CEO Mullenweg of “abuse of power, extortion and greed” and says it wants to prevent them from causing further harm to WP Engine and the WordPress community.

WP Engine is a major competitor to WordPress.com as more than 200,000 websites use the service. Mullenweg runs Automattic, which also owns WordPress.com, a company that sells a hosted version of the open source WordPress software – just like WP Engine.

In its lawsuit, WP Engine lists 11 complaints accusing Mullenweg and Automattic of defamation, slander, attempted extortion and a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. WP Engine also claims that the WordPress Foundation – the nonprofit organization led by Mullenweg that supports the open source WordPress project – failed to disclose its trademark ownership to the IRS and accuses Mellenweg of making false statements to the IRS to have.

“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust,” WP Engine said in a statement TechCrunch. “WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its employees, agency partners, customers and the broader WordPress community.”