Federal Court Rules Mullenweg Was "Evasive" in Deposition, Orders Unredaction of Strategy Deck in WP Engine v. Automattic Case

A federal court ruled that WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg was "evasive" during his three-day deposition in the WP Engine v. Automattic lawsuit. Magistrate Judge Ajay Krishnan issued rulings on June 5 resolving discovery disputes, including ordering new document searches, granting additional deposition time with Mullenweg, and rejecting WP Engine's attempt to redact a single sentence from an internal strategy deck. The redacted sentence relates to Automattic's consideration of paying for a trademark license it now claims it never needed. The rulings come after fact discovery in the high-profile legal battle between WP Engine and Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com.