Some key tidbits from the document and their argument:
Rather than being about access to WordPress software, this case instead is about WordPress.org – a website owned and run by Defendant Matt Mullenweg individually, for the benefit of the community he loves.
WordPress.org is not WordPress. WordPress.org is not Automattic or the WordPress Foundation, and is not controlled by either.
To the contrary, as Plaintiff itself acknowledges, WordPress.org is Mr. Mullenweg’s responsibility. Mr. Mullenweg has no contracts, agreements, or obligation to provide WP Engine access to the network and resources of WordPress.org.
WP Engine points to no terms, conditions, or permissions that entitle them to such access. Nevertheless, WP Engine, a private equity-backed company, made the unilateral decision, at its own risk, to build a multi-billion dollar business around Mr. Mullenweg’s website. In doing so, WP Engine gambled for the sake of profit that Mr. Mullenweg would continue to maintain open access to his website for free.
That was their choice.
Now, because of WP Engine’s conduct, because of the threat WP Engine poses to the beloved community Mr. Mullenweg has worked so hard to build, and because of WP Engine’s legal threats and actions against him personally, Mr. Mullenweg has decided that he no longer will provide free access to his website to the corporation that is suing him. Understandably, WP Engine is not happy with Mr. Mullenweg’s decision, and this lawsuit is WP Engine’s attempt to use this Court to compel the access it never secured by contract and has no right to by law.
And this:
More broadly, WP Engine’s protestations of prejudice ring hollow because, as even its own administrative motion implicitly makes clear, WP Engine only has itself to blame for its current predicament. The purported harm WP Engine describes in its administrative motion results directly from its decision to build its business around a third-party website – Mr. Mullenweg’s website – that WP Engine has no legal entitlement to access or use.
WP Engine’s preliminary injunction Motion asks this Court to compel that access, to require specific performance of a contract that does not exist, and to force Mr. Mullenweg to continue to provide free services to a private equity-backed company that would rather not expend the resources itself. There is no basis in law or equity for the Court to do so. Given the dramatic, factually unwarranted, and legally unsupportable effect the injunction sought by Plaintiff’s Motion would have on Defendants, Defendants should be afforded the ordinary two-week period provided by the local rules in order to oppose Plaintiff’s preliminary injunction Motion.
To sum it up, Automattic/Matt are arguing that the crux of the issue is around publishing WP Engine's products on wordpress.org and they're arguing that they're not required to do it (probably true) and that the injunction should be dismissed because they never entered into an agreement with WP Engine to publish and host their products (arguable since they did host it for years without issue, provided financial backing to WP Engine, and never had a problem with hosting their products until a few weeks ago).
For bystanders, this issue transcends hosting the ACF plugin in the repository. Matt also explicitly attempted to extort WP Engine (because he had no basis to demand anything from them) and admitted that he only using the trademark to try and leverage value out of them.
Before stealing the ACF listing he explicitly asked if ACF should be brought into core (after ignoring it for ages) and mentioned there'd be developments on that coming soon. Soon after the security team found issues with the plugin out of nowhere and they stole it.
