This is a big fucking deal. Automattic runs wordpress.com and is a for-profit company that provides blog hosting based on WordPress. The WordPress Foundation maintains the open source WordPress platform and runs wordpress.org. By doing this they’ve insured that no matter what happens at Automattic, the WordPress name will be defined and protected by its open source efforts. Seeing a for-profit donate its most valuable trademark to a non-profit organization is incredibly rare and I don’t think I can say it any better than founder Matt Mullenweg. I’m just going to quote the last paragraph of his announcement here.
Automattic might not always be under my influence, so from the beginning I envisioned a structure where for-profit, non-profit, and not-just-for-profit could coexist and balance each other out. It’s important for me to know that WordPress will be protected and that the brand will continue to be a beacon of open source freedom regardless of whether any company is as benevolent as Automattic has been thus far. It’s important to me to know that we’ve done the right thing. Hopefully, it’s important to you, too, and you’ll continue your support of WordPress, the WordPress Foundation, and Automattic’s products and services. We couldn’t do it without you!
Congratulations Matt. Truly inspiring.