A Reddit discussion has drawn attention to WordPress.org’s plugin review process after a developer said they received an automated response stating that their plugin’s use of the “-Press” suffix referenced the WordPress trademark and was not allowed. The developer later confirmed that the plugin was approved following an appeal, prompting other developers to share similar experiences with the review process.
Developer overturns automated plugin name rejection after appeal
Before the Reddit discussion, a similar question had been raised in the official #pluginreview Slack channel on July 1, 2026. Benjamin Denis (CEO of SEOPress) asked whether it was still possible to submit a plugin with a name ending in “-Press.” The question did not receive a response in the channel.
The Reddit discussion began when a user posting under the name sdubois explained that they had spent a few months developing a WordPress plugin and deliberately chose a name ending in “-Press” to signal that it was built for the platform. The developer said they had also secured a matching domain name before submitting the plugin to the WordPress.org repository.
According to the post, the submission received an automated response stating: “✨ The display name and slug use the ‘-Press’ construction as a reference to the WordPress trademark, which is not allowed in plugin names.”
After receiving the automated response, sdubois questioned whether the suffix alone should be considered a trademark issue. In the post, they said they understood why using the full “WordPress” name in a plugin title would be restricted, but argued that “Press” by itself did not appear to violate the trademark. They also pointed to existing plugins, including PublishPress and bbPress, asking whether those projects had been grandfathered in under an earlier policy.
A separate Reddit post by Luke Carbis, a member of the WordPress Plugin Team, published several months earlier, explained that the team uses AI to check plugin names for trademark violations and keyword stuffing. According to the post, AI-generated trademark flags are explicitly identified with a ✨ emoji; the same emoji that appeared in the automated response shared by sdubois.
Another commenter, PointLazy7001 said they had experienced a similar issue. According to the comment, they had already named the plugin, developed it using that namespace, and purchased a matching domain before it was rejected. The commenter said they explained their intention and noted that other plugins using “-Press” were already listed in the repository, but eventually changed the plugin’s name and refactored the codebase. In a follow-up comment, the commenter added that they had been asked for a trademark if they intended to use “Press” and said they ultimately gave up on pursuing the matter.
Echoing similar concerns, cwmyt also said they had experienced a similar issue with a small plugin that had a comparable name. According to the commenter, the plugin was rejected, prompting them to refactor it before submitting it again. The commenter further claimed that the review would “outright reject” full names, partial names, or abbreviations, adding that terms such as “WordPress,” “Press,” “WP,” and “WooCommerce” were “no go.”
The discussion later turned to the Plugin Check project’s GitHub repository, where another commenter linked to the Trademarks_Check.php file used by the plugin. After reviewing the list, sdubois noted that it included terms such as “wpress,” “wp,” and “WordPress,” but did not include the standalone word “press.”
Another commenter, harrymurkin, said about receiving a response during a previous plugin submission, stating that plugin names including “press” were no longer accepted because of their implied association with a WordPress product. However, the commenter added that they were relying on memory and did not know whether the restriction had ever been formally documented.
The user later updated the thread, saying they had challenged the automated response because they believed the flag was incorrect, arguing that the restriction was not documented and that Plugin Check did not list “-Press” as a prohibited term, although it did include “wpress” and “wp.” The developer subsequently confirmed that the plugin had been accepted.
More community reactions follow
The Reddit discussion later spread to X after Brad Williams shared the post, writing that it “sounds like WordPress.org has a new rule on plugin naming.”
Responding to the post, developer Nazmul said that his own plugin, OctoPress, had also been approved despite its name. However, he added that the experience appeared to vary depending on the reviewer.
Matt Mullenweg later replied, noting that “The OP on that thread got their plugin approved.”
Williams subsequently responded that he had not seen the follow-up confirming the approval when he read the Reddit thread, adding, “Glad to hear it’s resolved!”