Automattic VS DIYThemes
July 16, 2015Apparently, Automattic just won a legal case against Chris Pearson from DIYThemes regarding thesis.com. I’m not a lawyer and thus wont comment on the legal side of it (if you need a proper legal analysis, here you go), but this whole thing seems a bit strange to mee.
To cut a long story short, here’s what appears to have happened:
1. Some third-party held the domain name thesis.com
2. This third-party approached both Automattic and DIYThemes to sell the domain to them
3. Automattic outbid DIYThemes and bought the domain for $100k
4. Pearson of DIYThemes filed a request with ICANN to get the domain name transferred back to him, as he was/is the owner of the trademark for Thesis
5. Automattic won and in the process of this, the whole Thesis trademark got questioned and Pearson now has to fear loosing it altogether in a case still open
Whether this all is legally correct (which I suppose it is), whether the trademarks from Pearson were valid or not, whether he was or is a jerk and refused to properly comply to the GPL: All of this doesn’t explain why Automattic buys a “cool generic domain name” for $100k which has absolutely nothing to do with any of their own trademarks or brands but is solely and directly attacking the business of someone else.
I struggle to find an explanation other than personal vendetta and from the comments on other posts I’m not alone with this. Looking forward to a statement from Matt on the topic, which presumably won’t happen until the trademark case is closed, though.
If you ask me, there’s only one winner in this whole battle and that’s the “third-party” who sold a domain for 100k. Everyone else involved would have been better of without all this.
WPTavern – Chris Pearson Loses Cybersquatting Case Against Automattic