Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic announced on Reddit that WP Engine initiated legal action against WordPress, Automattic, and Mullenweg himself. Mullenweg wrote that WordPress is countersuing.
WP Engine is a leading managed WordPress host provider that Mullenweg alleges is violating the WordPress trademark.
I mean, it’s the smart thing to do (even from a purely selfish perspective where you want to make sure the project continues to go into the development direction that keeps making you money), but it’s not something that’s actionable in court or anything like that.
Exactly.
The reason most companies decide to contribute to FOSS is because it’s a lot more efficient to fix bugs and add/influence features upstream than to do it at your end of the code independently of everybody else.