#208- Automattic Files New Motion To Dismiss WP Engine’s Claims, New Lawsuit Against Matt

Issue #208 | February 25, 2025 | Reading time: 15 mins

Hello!

Today we cover the new motion filed by Automattic seeking to dismiss most of WP Engine’s claims, a new lawsuit filed against Matt Mullenweg, and new projects.

WordCamp Asia 2025 was a fantastic experience, uniting the community for learning and collaboration—next up, Mumbai for WordCamp Asia 2026!

Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.

See you next week!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

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🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN

Automattic has filed a motion to dismiss and strike claims made by WP Engine in the ongoing legal dispute

The filing seeks to dismiss the anti-trust, extortion, CFAA, defamation, Promissory Estoppel, UCL “Unlawful” and “Unfair” claims along with the claims for Interference with Economic Relations (Count 2), Trademark Misuse (Count 16), and Unjust Enrichment (Count 20).

A new class action lawsuit was filed against Matt Mullenweg: Ryan Keller has filed this new lawsuit as the ongoing drama had affected his and other businesses in the WordPress community.
WP Engine has provided 17,500 pages of documents to Automattic, but Automattic has yet to provide any of the requested discovery documents to WP Engine: Duane Storey brought this to everyone’s attention based on the recent filing where WP Engine states, “ WPE notes that, despite several requests from WPE, Defendants failed to provide their full portions of this Joint Case Management Statement until 11:19 a.m. on February 20, approximately 40 minutes before the Court-ordered filing deadline. This has effectively denied WPE the opportunity to fully review or respond to Defendants’ portions, and thus, as of this filing, WPE has not been able to do so.” Michael Preslar has shared some key takeaways from this joint filing submitted by both parties.

📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

WordCamp Asia 2025 wraps up – Next stop: Mumbai for 2026!

WordCamp Asia 2025 was a huge success, bringing together passionate WordPress enthusiasts, insightful sessions, and vibrant community engagement. Looking back at the event there were over 1,400 attendees from 71 countries and additional 15,000 participants joined online. The event started with the Contributor Day with around 700 attendees, followed by the two conference days with Matt Mullenweg delivering the closing note. This year’s WordCamp also brought back the Human Library along with an all-new Solutions Spotlight, and Career Corner, and Social Corner, and YouthCamp.

Michelle Frechette has raised almost $1000 with her initiative #MichelleAndMe selfies. The donations received will be used to fund underrepresented people at WordCamps. The Core Committer meeting notes have been published and Matt Mullenweg also recounted his WordCamp Asia 2025 experience, highlighting the diverse attendance from 71 countries, over 1,800 tickets sold, and a strong turnout for Contributor Day.

If you missed the event, you can watch the live recordings on YouTube. Jhimross has shared links to the public folder for WordCamp Asia 2025, where anyone can add and access event photos.

The next host city for WordCamp Asia 2026 is Mumbai, India, and Katie Keith has already expressed visa concerns for her teammates.

WP-Content.co is proud to be a media partner for WordCamp Asia 2025, and we can’t wait to do it all over again for WordCamp Asia 2026!

Plugin author now linked to WordPress.org profiles: Before this update, value was taken from the plugin’s headers, from the “Author” and “Author URI” fields, but now the value is taken directly from the plugin owner’s profile.
Critical privilege escalation patched in KLEO Theme’s plugin: A privilege escalation via account takeover vulnerability was recently patched and all users are to update to the latest version immediately.
100,000 WordPress sites affected by arbitrary file upload, read and deletion vulnerability in Everest Forms WordPress plugin: The vulnerability that allowed an unauthenticated attacker to upload arbitrary files to a vulnerable site and execute remote code execution and also makes it possible for unauthenticated threat actors to read and delete arbitrary files, including the wp-config.php file, which can make site takeover possible was recently patched.
Studio’s demo sites feature upgraded: Firstly the Demo Sites feature has been renamed to Preview Sites and the upgrades include more storage, the ability to run 5-10 preview sites, shorter and personalized URLs, and will be available for seven days.
Tech Chegg sues Google for hurting traffic with AI as it considers strategic alternatives: Chegg on Monday filed suit in federal district court against Google, claiming that AI summaries of search results have hurt the online education company’s traffic and revenue.
Google gives Responsive Search Ads more flexibility: Google’s update enhances ad flexibility, optimizing asset combinations dynamically to improve engagement, relevance, and performance.
Google faces EU charges over search bias: The European Commission is preparing to charge Google with violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) after the tech giant’s proposed changes to search results failed to satisfy regulators and rivals, according to sources familiar with the matter.
ChatGPT referral traffic to publishers remains minimal: Data from Similarweb shows that referrals from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to 14 leading news publishers grew from roughly 435,000 monthly visits in August to 3.5 million in January. Despite this jump, ChatGPT contributed less than 0.1% of these sites’ total visits.

💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS

Filter reclaims full ownership of PersonalizeWP: Filter, the company behind PersonalizeWP, which received an investment from Emilia Capital in early 2024, has decided to fully return the investment. This will result in Filter taking full control of the PersonalizeWP plugin. The planned updates for this plugin include a new feature that allows multiple variations of the same block, interface refinements, an A/B Testing block, and more.

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

Cloudways now on Reddit

Cloudways now has an official Reddit space, where users can engage in meaningful conversations, find answers to their queries, provide insights, and so on.

Class action lawsuit against UserWay alleges violations of Delaware Consumer Fraud Act and other laws: The article discusses a class action lawsuit filed by BloomsyBox, an online flower delivery service, against UserWay, a web accessibility overlay company. BloomsyBox purchased UserWay’s overlay, believing it would make its website accessible and protect it from lawsuits. However, despite using the overlay, the company was sued by a blind user who could not access the site.
Taco Verdo’s and Matt Mullenweg’s exchange on X: Taco Verdo highlighted the importance of adaptability in general and how it’s probably true for software to which Matt responded by reflecting on WordPress’ history, noting that despite changes in leadership and contributors, the platform has continued to thrive, driven by a few key individuals over the years.
G2 has ranked Kinsta #1 in the WordPress Hosting category: Helped by reviews submitted by over 930 Kinsta customers, G2 has ranked Kinsta #1 in the WordPress Hosting category and 8th overall among all web hosting companies.
AI-powered image generation capabilities will be integrated into the AI Services plugin: Felix Arntz provided this upcoming update information on X and the plugin will support image generation using models from OpenAI’s DALL·E and Google’s Imagen.
Do the Woo v5.0 launched: The launch brings forth a redesigned homepage, updates to the YouTube channel, and more.
Dennis Ploetner receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community: Dennis Ploetner, a member of the WordPress Community Team is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.

🚀 NEW PROJECTS

Hostinger Horizons launched: The new AI tool from Hostinger allows users to create web apps without taking up coding. The new tool is currently being made available to only a selected number of users and from March onwards it will be available to all.
Introducing JWT Auth Pro by Enrique Chavez: Enrique Chavez will soon launch JWT Auth Pro, a premium WordPress plugin that provides secure, robust, and developer-friendly JWT (JSON Web Token) authentication for WordPress REST API.
All new Support Access Manager: Derek Ashauer has launched the Support Access Manager, a lightweight PHP class for WordPress that allows temporary admin accounts to be created with expiration and access limits.
Uptime Monitor Pro released: This new project was launched by Deryck Oñate Espinel, and allows users to track uptime, SSL status, cert & domain expiration, and keywords
Introducing WordPress Media Sortable Filesize: This plugin created by Austin Passy, improves the media library functionality by introducing a new column that showcases the sizes of files.
Custom Cursor Rules Multirepo extension published: JuanMa Garrido has released the Custom Cursro Rules Mutlirepo extension for VScode, which is a visual code / cursor extension to download “.cursorrules” files from different sources directly from the IDE.
Melapress releases Melapress Role Editor: The Melapress Role Editor plugin, allows users to easily manage their website’s user roles.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss

WordPress sentiment defies X drama, remains strong across platforms: While negativity on X hit an all-time high of 54% last October, WordPress sentiment on other social platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr, remained largely unaffected, holding at 96% positive. From The Repository.
Challenging Five for the Future: Samuel Sidler critically examines the “Five for the Future” initiative and its role in the ongoing conflict between Automattic’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg, and WP Engine.
Designing the evolution of the Woo brand identity: Daniel Nieuwenhuizen explains the journey of the recent rebranding of WooCommerce, highlighting the design process, community involvement, and the brand’s evolution. From WooCommerce.
Tammie Lister’s journey with BuddyPress, Gutenberg, and Guildenberg: In this episode of ‘Within WordPress,’ Tammie shares insights from her extensive journey spanning over 12 years, discussing the evolution of BuddyPress, her pivotal role in the Gutenberg project, and her latest venture as a co-founder of Guildenberg.
The three big existential threats facing WordPress: The three threats according to Jamie Marsland are from AI site builders, the evolution of search and zero-click results, and the decline of traditional blogging. From Jamie Marsland.
Enterprise WordPress 2025: AI tools, CMS strategies, and roadmap updates: Brad, Karim, and Tom have a conversation about the future of enterprise WordPress in 2025. They cover key trends such as the rapid advancement of AI, the evolving CMS landscape, and upcoming features on the WordPress roadmap.
In conversation with Kevin Geary: Bud Kraus sits down with Kevin Geary to explore his journey in WordPress and online business, his latest project, Etch, and insights into his personal life. From, Seriously Bud?
Katie Keith on the move from agency owner to WordPress theme development to plugin success: The podcast features Katie Keith, founder and CEO of Barn2 Plugins, as she shares their journey from running a WordPress agency to building a successful plugin business and Barn2’s expansion into Shopify apps for diversification.
8 Handy AI prompts to speed up your WordPress workflow: Eric Karkovack explores practical ways AI can speed up WordPress processes, offering useful prompts for both beginners and experts to work smarter and more effectively. From Speckyboy.
How to set up your WordPress agency for long-term success: This article explores proven strategies for long-term success, helping businesses navigate industry shifts and build a sustainable future in the ever-changing WordPress ecosystem. From Speckyboy.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

Building a block theme using the Create Block Theme plugin: From Kinsta

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

Women in Tech on March 8, 2025: The registrations are now open.
WordCamp Mukono on March 8, 2025: The tickets are now available.
The Dutch PHP Conference 2025 on March 18-21, 2025: The tickets are now available.
EmpowerWP Bhopal on March 9, 2025: The call for speakers is out.
PressConf 2025 on April 23-26: A conference for WordPress Professionals and the tickets are now available.
WordCamp Lisboa 2025 on May 16-17, 2025: Tickets are now available.
WordCamp Europe on 5-7 June 2025: Tickets are expected to be available soon.
WordCamp Asia 2026: It is tentatively planned for early February 2026 and the call for organizers is now open.

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