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#279 – WP Engine Challenges Trademarks, Another Plugin Leaves WP.org, DLX Plugins to Close

Issue #279   |   July 8, 2026   |   Reading time: 23 mins

Hello!

This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover WP Engine opposing the WordPress Foundation’s trademark attempt in Canada, the revert in decision with regard ot the Classic block, Woosa making its WooCommerce dropshipping and marketplace plugins free for everyone, DLX plugins announcing closure, along with new projects and more.

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.

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See you next week!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

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🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN

WP Engine opposes WordPress Foundation’s Canadian trademark applications for “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress”

The filings submitted on June 27, 2026, argue that the terms, Hosted WordPress and Managed WordPress are commonly used across the industry to describe WordPress-related services, making them descriptive rather than distinctive, and raise additional objections including bad faith, lack of registrability, and entitlement to use the trademarks.

Earlier, on February 18, 2026, WP Engine filed a consolidated notice of opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against the WordPress Foundation’s trademark applications for “Hosted WordPress” and “Managed WordPress.” The filing argued that the terms are generic and merely descriptive, and raised additional claims including no bona fide intent to use the marks and fraud.

WordPress Foundation had already obtained trademark rights to these terms in UK, Australia and European Union.

📰  WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

Marin Atanasov announced the revert and that the Classic block will continue to work as it does today, with no changes required for users or developers. The team also removed the related filter and migration notice, and will close the Enable Classic Block plugin. Atanasov highlighted one of the key pieces of feedback as, “One of the takeaways is that the Classic block should become obsolete by choice, not by force.”

  • WordPress 7.0.1 RC1 is now available: The upcoming maintenance release includes bug fixes for issues introduced or deferred during the WordPress 7.0 cycle, with updates spanning core and Gutenberg, including accessibility, the editor, media, navigation, styling, and compatibility improvements. Contributors are encouraged to test the release candidate and report any issues before the final release scheduled to take place on July 9, 2026.
  • WordPress Core Abilities API is set to expand with read access to settings, content, and users: The WordPress 7.1 proposal expands the WordPress Core Abilities API with three read-only abilities, core/read-settings, core/read-content, and core/read-users, building on the Abilities API introduced in WordPress 6.9. It aims to make a standard WordPress install more agent-readable and establishes a repeatable pattern for future Core abilities across entities such as comments, media, plugins, and taxonomies.
  • WordPress 7.1 release party schedule announced: The release cycle begins with Beta 1 on July 15, 2026, followed by the Release Candidate (RC) phase starting August 5, the Dry Run and 24-hour code freeze on August 18, and the final release on August 19. The General Release coincides with WordCamp US 2026, though contributors can participate remotely through the #core Slack channel. Also, the WordPress Test team will replace its regular Future Milestone Patch Testing Sessions with WordPress 7.1 Test Scrubs. Beginning with the next scheduled session, Test Scrubs will be held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month in the #core-test Slack channel, focusing on WordPress 7.1 tickets marked Has Patch or Needs Testing. The regular bug scrubs for WordPress 7 .1 will take place twice a week from July 6 through August 17 in the #core Slack channel, with sessions focusing on Alpha, Beta, and Release Candidate issues as the release cycle progresses.
  • Aditya Kane proposes restructuring the Community Team handbooks and calls for volunteers: The proposal would redesign the Community Team handbooks landing page by grouping documentation into audience-based sections, making it easier for contributors to find relevant resources. It also outlines plans to reorganize the Community Team Handbook, create standalone Sponsor and Speaker handbooks, and establish a working group to audit, restructure, and maintain the documentation.
  • Gutenberg 23.5 introduces enhanced media editing, responsive design tools, and collaboration improvements: The latest release adds inline image cropping to the Cover block through the Media Editor, introduces a unified device preview with a resizable editor canvas for responsive editing, and expands responsive style controls with support for aspect ratio, flex alignment, and text shadows.
  • WooCommerce 10.9.3 is now available: The release fixes a fatal error in WC_Email::send_notification() when a filtered mail callback returns a non-bool value. Also, WooCommerce is making steady progress on its GitHub issue backlog, as highlighted by James Kemp. The number of open issues in the WooCommerce GitHub repository has dropped from 2,610 at the beginning of June to 1,881, with more details expected later this week.
  • Automattic acquires the WebHosting.com domain: As reported by DomainInvesting.com, the domain was previously owned by AT&T before transferring to MarkMonitor with Automattic listed as the registrant in Whois records. While Automattic has not announced its plans, WebHosting.com currently displays a “coming soon” page.
  • Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (June 22, 2026 to June 28, 2026): There were 199 vulnerabilities disclosed in 169 plugins and 9 themes.
  • Weebly to wind down services in 67 countries by September 2026: Citing regulatory changes and efforts to simplify its global operations, the company said affected customers will no longer be able to publish new pages starting June 29, 2026, will have their sites unpublished on September 27, 2026, and will retain account access until December 26, 2026, to download data and transfer domains.

🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK

Self-Host Fonts & Use font-display: swap

@font-face {
  font-family: ‘Inter’;
  src: url(‘inter.woff2’);
  font-display: swap;
}

Benefits:

  • Faster text rendering
  • Reduced blocking
  • Improved LCP

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

Jessica Risch reflected on Woosa’s journey from a growing WooCommerce plugin business to declining plugin sales, explaining how the company’s WooCommerce Support service and Woosa Payments have enabled it to give back by making its dropshipping and marketplace plugins free forever. She also discussed AI’s impact on the WordPress ecosystem and the sustainability challenges. Risch also introduced The Woosa Collective, an initiative focused on making WooCommerce more accessible, providing dedicated support, and creating a shared earning model for developers, agencies, and plugin sellers.

  • Seahawk files lawsuit against CloudLinux in Delaware Court of Chancery over AutopilotWP: Seahawk alleges that CloudLinux used confidential information and insights gained through their partnership to develop the competing AutopilotWP platform, prompting claims of breach of contract and interference with business relationships. The Delaware Court has temporarily restrained AutopilotWP pending further proceedings. CloudLinux, meanwhile, has confirmed that it has ended its business relationship with Seahawk, stating that the decision does not reflect on the quality of Seahawk’s services.
  • DLX Plugins will close in October as most premium plugins set to become open source: Ronald Huereca announced that DLX Plugins will shut down its commercial operations on October 1, 2026, citing the financial challenges of running an independent WordPress plugin business. Most premium plugins will be open-sourced, with license-free versions provided to lifetime license holders and customers with active licenses before the sunset date, while efforts will be made to find new owners or maintainers for supported free plugins.
  • Gato GraphQL is no longer available in the plugin repository: Leonardo Losoviz announced that Gato GraphQL will no longer be distributed through the WordPress.org plugin directory and will instead be available through the Gato Plugins store. He explained that the move was driven by challenges with WordPress.org’s 24-hour update window, SVN upload issues, translation workflows, and limited traffic from the directory. Losoviz added that users will continue receiving automatic updates through the new distribution system using a free license key, which also enables support access for free users.
  • WPBeginner’s 17th birthday giveaway: To celebrate its 17th anniversary, WPBeginner is giving away over $10,000 worth of premium licenses to 39 winners, including 10 Universally licenses, 5 Uncanny Agent licenses, and 3 licenses each for WPConsent, ActiveLayer, AIOSEO, WPVibe, SeedProd, Duplicator, WPChat, and the Sydney theme.
  • MotoPress is building a trusted WordPress service provider directory: They are inviting WordPress agencies, freelancers, small teams, and other experienced service providers to apply, creating a network that connects MotoPress customers with professionals for MotoPress customization, integrations, and development projects.
  • Search and Filter’s upcoming update will expose abilities: Ross Morsali previewed an upcoming Search & Filter update that introduces abilities, allowing AI agents to control things on WordPress sites. He noted that if MCP is installed in WordPress, it can use these abilities. The update enables users to create WooCommerce stores with advanced search and filtering using prompts, while the suggestions ability detects available data and plugins to surface options for LLMs without requiring them to search for what is available. Ross invited feedback from anyone building WordPress sites with LLMs. Also, recently Search and Filter announced a partnership with Pressidium.
  • TutorLMS 4.0 launching on July 8, 2026: The release is set to introduce a redesigned learning interface with centralized student tools, revamped quizzes featuring new question types and improved settings, enhanced instructor dashboards and workflows, and so much more.
  • LinkCentral URL Shortener 1.7.1 adds Link in Bio Pages and automated insights reports: The new Link in Bio Pages feature lets users create Linktree-style pages with built-in tracking, and the update also adds automatic email delivery of insights reports, premium QR code customization with logos and new styles, and several improvements.
  • Static Studio launches a CLI for AI-powered WordPress workflows: The new command-line interface lets users manage sites from the terminal, scripts, CI workflows, and AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. It supports site creation, WordPress imports, static deployments, domain and redirect management, backups, log inspection, and performance checks.
  • WPBakery 9.0 beta release now available for testing: WPBakery has launched the beta for WPBakery 9.0 ahead of its planned release at the end of July 2026. Described as one of the project’s largest updates in recent years, version 9.0 brings changes focused on performance, the editing interface, developer tooling, and compatibility. Direct license holders can test the beta in staging or development environments and submit feedback before the final release.
  • GravityView 3.0 introduces themes, AI-powered View management, page builder integrations, and more: The update introduces themes for styling Views, including the new built-in Vantage theme, AI-powered View creation and editing through the GravityKit MCP, native integrations with Divi, Beaver Builder, and Elementor, and more.
  • WPMU DEV rolls out the first round of improvements for EmDash hosting: One month after launching EmDash on Unlimited Hosting, WPMU DEV has addressed several early issues, including fixing 404 errors for newly published pages, preconfiguring email, strengthening security, improving media delivery, and refining the Hub experience. The team also announced that support for additional official EmDash templates is the next major focus, with further updates to be guided by user feedback.
  • Novamira Visual lets you watch AI edit WordPress sites in real time: This is an experimental browser workspace built into Novamira that lets users watch AI agents open, edit, and build WordPress pages live. It supports the Gutenberg editor with the free version and adds live Elementor and Bricks support with Novamira Pro.
  • AffiliateWP now lets you pay international affiliates in their local currency with Stripe: The update enables stores with US- or UK-based Stripe accounts to pay affiliates across the US, UK, Canada, Europe, and Switzerland in their local currency through a single Stripe payout.
  • Document Library Pro plugin expands beyond WordPress: Katie Keith announced the launch of a SaaS version of Document Library Pro, bringing the searchable document library experience beyond WordPress to any website platform.
  • Rodolfo Melogli is shifting Business Bloomer toward a subscription-based approach: Melogli announced that Business Bloomer is shifting to subscriptions, starting with the Business Bloomer Club and soon extending to products and sponsorships. He said the change means adapting his approach, including revisiting ideas he has advocated for years. He is now trying to ship value more frequently and with purpose.
  • Pavel Ciorici questions whether WordPress.org’s Featured Plugins section should prioritize newer plugins over proven ones: Ciorici shared concerns about the Featured Plugins experiment on WordPress.org, saying that while he appreciates the goal of surfacing new plugins, it overlooks established plugins that have been maintained for years but are unlikely to appear because they are no longer new. He suggested that highlighting high-quality plugins with 1k–50k installs could help users discover reliable tools that have already proven themselves but remain underexposed in the directory.
  • Greyd Appoints Barry Kooij as CTO: After collaborating behind the scenes for several months, Barry officially joins the leadership team to help shape Greyd’s long-term product roadmap.
  • Dhrumil Kumbhani receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community:  Dhrumil Kumbhani, a member of the WordPress community, is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
“Instead of building custom integrations for every plugin and service, AgentMod discovers abilities registered in WordPress and makes them available to AI agents.“

Kadim Gültekin about creating AgentMod.
  • AgentMod: This is an AI Agent Platform for WordPress developed by Kadim Gültekin that orchestrates native Abilities via the WordPress AI Client.
  • WP Search Filter Test Lab: A WP-CLI setup script developed by Akramul Hasan for creating a local WordPress testing lab with WooCommerce, CPTs, custom taxonomies, posts, products, and sample data for search/filter plugin testing.
  • Minn Admin: Austin Ginder’s new project is a single-page WordPress admin built on the WordPress REST API that provides a modern alternative to the classic admin while keeping wp-admin fully available.
  • WordPress Malware Removal Tool: Aditya R Sharma introduced an open-source AI-powered WordPress malware removal tool that audits, cleans, and hardens sites by detecting hidden threats such as cloaked spam, scanning beyond wp-content, safely removing malware, and identifying how a site was compromised.
  • Uno AI Studio: Created by Pascal Claro, this new plugin helps users generate patterns, headers, footers, design systems and full landing pages with AI and native WordPress blocks.
  • Network Style Override: The plugin by Per Søderlind allows for network-wide CSS and theme.json overrides for WordPress Multisite, allowing users to enforce brand consistency across all subsites from a single admin panel.
  • Neural Forms: A new form plugin by the Elicus team that combines a drag-and-drop form builder with a built-in lead inbox for managing submissions. It also offers optional AI-powered features, including automatic summaries, categorization, priority scoring, and draft replies, while supporting spam protection, CSV exports, and Contact Form 7 migration.
  • Two new add-ons by Gravity Forms: The Feedback add-on transforms your Gravity Forms entries into a polished, public-facing idea board with voting, filtering, sorting, search, and comments, allowing users to collect feedback and prioritize what to build next directly on your WordPress site. The Versioning add-on brings built-in version control for forms, automatically saving snapshots that can be compared, restored, and exported.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

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

  • In this episode of Seriously, Bud?, Bud Kraus conversed with Arpit G. Shah about his personal journey, travels, and 17-year career in WordPress, including his role on the organizing team for WordCamp US 2026 and his perspective on AI’s growing role in the WordPress ecosystem.
  • Robert Abela is joined by Anne-Mieke Bovelett on this episode of the Melapress Show to discuss why the industry keeps framing accessibility as a legal obligation rather than a business advantage, as well as common accessibility mistakes, ROI, and the value of semantic structure for AI-driven search and agents.
  • Jonathan Wold and Luke Carbis are joined by Amy Kamaa in this episode of Crossword, to discuss her journey as a WordPress contributor, her work with the Hosting Team and as a WordPress 7.0 release coordinator, and the project’s collaborative decision-making process.
  • In this episode of the WP Tavern Jukebox, Ivana Ćirković discusses the WordPress Credits initiative, explaining how it connects students with real-world WordPress contributions, mentorship, and career opportunities while helping universities and businesses engage with the open source ecosystem.
  • Austin Ginder breaks down six ways attackers compromise WordPress.org plugins through supply chain attacks, drawing on real investigations to explain how these attacks work and how they can be detected.
  • Allyson Martinez examined why many WordPress sites continue to run end-of-life PHP versions, highlighting that over 70% of publicly reachable WordPress sites use outdated PHP and only 14% run the latest WordPress release.
  • Ryan McCue argues that pull requests should remain a human-centered collaboration rather than becoming an AI-to-AI exchange. While supporting AI as a coding tool, he cautions against AI-generated pull request descriptions, unfiltered AI-created submissions, and AI-mediated review discussions, saying they undermine knowledge sharing, meaningful feedback, and the engineering review process.
  • Jamie Marsland asked Claude to review the WordPress Site Editor and block editor, with the AI praising their capabilities while identifying usability issues around navigation, onboarding, and discoverability.
  • Tom Greenwood reflects on the growth of digital sustainability over the past decade, arguing that small individual actions can drive meaningful industry-wide change. Drawing on his own journey and experiences, he encourages web professionals to adopt more sustainable practices and share their knowledge, emphasizing that collective efforts can reshape the future of the web.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK

Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!

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  • 4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
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  • Up to 84% off at Hostinger (Code NYSALE for an extra 10% off)
  • 15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)
MORE DEALS

This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸‍♂️🙌

ProfilePress – Create membership sites & sell subscriptions on WordPress Check it out  →

Create a career page and start recruiting talents in a few minutes Check it out  →

Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇

The First AI Leaders Cohort Graduates as Automattic Unveils Long-term Education Investment

Around 40 students from the University of Illinois Chicago, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Louisiana at…

Read more

The State of WordPress Themes Report Reveals a Gap Between Block Theme Development and Adoption

Pavel Ciorici has published The State of WordPress Themes report, a data-driven review of the WordPress.org theme directory,…

Read more

Elementor Lays Off 30% of Workforce Amid AI-driven Restructuring

Elementor has laid off around 100 employees, approximately 30% of its workforce, as the website-building platform restructures to…

Read more

Automattic Gives Teams a Month to Build Anything. Here’s What They Created

What happens when more than 400 teams are given a month to build whatever they want? Automattic set…

Read more

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

Issue #279   |   July 8, 2026   |   Reading time: 23 mins

This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by ProfilePress and WP Job Openings

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