WordPress sues domain name owner: 2015’s Top 5

A WordPress lawsuit was the third most-trafficked story on Reglike last year.

Coming in at #3 on last year’s most-read posts was a lawsuit filed by WordPress foundation.

WordPress Foundation sued the owner of TheWordPressHelpers.com (and other domains), alleging the domains infringed WordPress’ trademarks.

The group has guidelines for how people can use the WordPress trademarks. One of the rules is that they can’t be used in second level domain names.

WordPress Foundation has filed UDRPs to get domain names back in the past. In this case, it went to the courts since domain name owner Edward Jeffrey Yablon played a game of chicken with WordPress: he filed opposition proceedings with the USPTO to try to halt one of WordPress’ trademark applications.

Yablon eventually relented, handing the domains over to WordPress.

I think this article struck a nerve since the use of WordPress marks is a hot-button issue. WordPress probably wasn’t consistent early on, and there’s a lot of debate regarding what’s fair when it comes to the WordPress name.