Developer Seeks WordPress Injunction to Halt Harms to Business

A third-party software developer asked a federal court to order WordPress.com-owner Automattic Inc. and its CEO to restore the company’s software access and cease further interference with operations allegedly stripped in a “nuclear” war stemming from a trademark licensing fight that began last month.

Automattic and CEO Matthew Mullenweg have escalated their attacks against WPEngine Inc. since the WordPress plug-in developer filed a lawsuit accusing them of leveraging trademark law to extort tens of millions of dollars—including by instating a new requirement that users must disavow WPE to log on—according to a preliminary injunction motion filed Friday in the US ...