Perfect way to kill the project [LWN.net]

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 11, 2025 12:59 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Perfect way to kill the project by pizza
Parent article: Automattic reduces WordPress contributions

> s/Sciily/Everywhere trademarks are a thing (ie everywhere)/

Pizza, you're missing the "nice-a business you have-a here. Would-a be a shame-a if anything-a happened to it-a". (You seem to make a habit of that, approving business practices that most people consider bordering on extortion.)

And I think you'll find Auttomatica's demands are based mostly on things that trademark law says are EXPLICITLY PERMITTED. It is an absolutely fundamental requirement of trademark law that - in order to do anything wrong - you start by taking a trademark and using it to describe something that is not the trademarked article. I think you'll find Wordpress has done nothing of the sort.

Cheers,
Wol

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Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 12, 2025 12:30 UTC (Sun) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link]

> Pizza, you're missing the "nice-a business you have-a here. Would-a be a shame-a if anything-a happened to it-a".

And you're missing that licensing trademarks after threatening litigation is *business as usual* in most places.

> And I think you'll find Auttomatica's demands are based mostly on things that trademark law says are EXPLICITLY PERMITTED.

That assertion is very much in dispute here, and up for a court to decide.

> In order to do anything wrong - you start by taking a trademark and using it to describe something that is not the trademarked article.

The point of trademarks is to prevent market confusion in a specific field of endeavor. I don't know what fields the Automattic/wordpress.org-held trademarks cover, but it is beyond dispute that WP Engine positions themselves as a direct competitor to Automattic.

> I think you'll find Wordpress has done nothing of the sort.

That's also very much in dispute, and also a matter of a court to decide.