There continues to be confusion over who or what actually owns WordPress and the associated wordpress.org website. Considering what has happened recently, the ownership is a big security issue. Adding to the confusion was a post published yesterday on the website of Automattic, which is headed by Matt Mullenweg. Matt Mullenweg is claiming to personally own WordPress.org. The post by Neil Peretz, an associate general counsel at Automattic is titled WordPress Trademarks: A Legal Perspective. It makes this claim:

The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software.

The foundation referenced there is the non-profit WordPress Foundation. So the claim is that there is a separate non-profit WordPress.org. If there is, it doesn’t appear to be anyone aware of it and Matt Mullenweg, who is the CEO of Automattic, claims to personally own the website.

A graphic included in the post similarly claims that “Right to use name as part of non-profit activities” went to WordPress:

But there doesn’t appear to be a non-profit WordPress. The only non-profit appears to be the WordPress Foundation, which the graphic is showing as separate from WordPress.

So it would appear that the post is incorrect or there is a non-profit that even Matt Mullenweg isn’t aware of that is in control of WordPress, which would be odd.

The day before, Automattic posted a term sheet that claimed that part of a possible legal contract would be directed by “WordPress.org:”

Commit 8% of its revenue in the form of salaries of WP Engine employees working on WordPress
core features and functionality to be directed by WordPress.org.

That term sheet didn’t define who or what WordPress.org is.

We reached out to Automattic’s press email address for clarification on the post. If we get one or the post is changed, we will update this post.