“…there is a text from Mr. Mullenweg in which he says, or he makes reference to even negotiating the terms the following week. They just never responded to Mr. Mullenweg’s response.”
What The Judge Said
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín had a lot to untangle, with perhaps the main thing being that WP Engine’s injunction was too vague.
The judge gave an indication of what direction she was leaning but also explained that the request was a “non-starter.”
“Having reviewed everything, I am inclined to grant some sort of injunction. Here’s the problem that I have with your proposed injunction, though. This is a nonstarter because it is exceedingly vague.”
The judge then encouraged the parties to work together to narrow down the preliminary injunction to something that isn’t vague and failing that they could submit “dueling submissions.” There was some back and forth about what date to return to court with, with WP Engine asking for a Friday date and eventually agreeing to return on Tuesday, December 3rd.
Reaction To Preliminary Injunction Hearing
A lawyer live blogging the proceedings on Bluesky wrote up their take on what happened:
“I knew that WPE was in very good shape when the opening question was “tell me about your one best shot” because that’s not generally a question you’d ask if you thought nothing had any merit.
I thought that tortious interference was the best shot. I’m pretty sure WordPress’s lawyers did too.”
And followed up with:
“I was reasonably sure that this was leaning toward a grant on the PI. I think that Automattic was close to getting their alternative, but Mack may have saved things with his tech walk through.”
He offered a good opinion about the judge, saying that she appears to recognize that some of the technical issues are outside of her area of expertise and that she expressed a willingness to ask questions to better understand.
He offered his opinion about the judge and the final outcome:
“It’s clear that the Judge isn’t overly technical in her background, but is aware of that and is willing to listen attentively – this is very good, and not a universal federal judge trait.
It will be interesting to see what we get on Monday.
Almost certainly, dueling proposals.”
This summary of what happened in court is based on a live blog and a post on Bluesky by a lawyer of the proceedings over Zoom.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Crypto Factory