Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic have asked a court to dismiss WP Engine’s lawsuit accusing them of libel and extortion. In a filing on Wednesday, Mullenweg argues that WP Engine is conjuring claims “out of legal thin air,” while alleging it continues to use the WordPress trademark “in unauthorized ways.”
Earlier this month, the third-party WordPress hosting service WP Engine filed a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg after the executive embarked on a “scorched earth nuclear” campaign against it. In addition to accusing WP Engine of trademark infringement, Mullenweg claimed the service doesn’t contribute enough to the open-source WordPress.org project, which Mullenweg also controls. WordPress.org also…