On Thu, Dec 19, 2024 at 4:25 PM WordPress Community Team support@wordcamp.org wrote:
Hi, WP Community Collective team,

My name is Felipe Santos, and I’m reaching out as part of the WordPress Community Support, PBC.

We recently noticed that your organization has officially incorporated as a new non-profit entity in California. Congratulations, and thank you for your contributions to the WordPress community.

While we are pleased to see your incorporation, we are concerned about the potential confusion your name might cause.

There is a possibility that people could mistakenly think that WordPress Community Support (WPCS) and WP Community Collective (WPCC) are the same organization, as the names are quite similar.

Would you consider renaming your entity to something less likely to cause this misunderstanding?

We would greatly appreciate it if you could respond within the next 15 days.

—
Felipe Santos
support@wordcamp.org

Dear Felipe,

Thank you for reaching out and for your congratulations on our incorporation. We founded The WP Community Collective in 2022, so this formal incorporation is an important milestone on what we hope will be a long and productive journey. We appreciate your recognition of our contributions to the WordPress community.

Thank you also for sharing your concerns regarding potential confusion between the name of our organization, “The WP Community Collective, Inc.” (The WPCC), and the corporation you represent, “WordPress Community Support, PBS” (WPCS).

We respect that “WordPress” is a registered trademark, and that permission from the WordPress Foundation is required to use the WordPress or WordCamp names or logos. In response to your email, we have carefully reviewed the most current version of the WordPress Foundation Trademark Usage Policy (accessed Jan 9, 2025). 

The WP Community Collective is non-commercial in nature, and we neither promote nor are associated with entities that currently fail to comply with the GPL license under which WordPress is distributed. Further, the purpose of our work within the WordPress community is to promote the spread and improvement of the WordPress software.

While we believe our projects would qualify to use the WordPress name and logo for non-commercial purposes, based on the above and our objective review of the Trademark Usage Policy, we do not use either in our name, branding, or project titles. At this time, we are only using the term “WordPress” when necessary to refer to and explain our activities. As such, we have no plans to request formal permission from the WordPress Foundation for its use at this time.

As stated in the policy, the abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademark. While we continue to prioritize and support the WordPress contributor community, we have broadened our scope to include not just the greater “WP” ecosystem, but the wider open-source community. This expanded mission and focus is codified in our formal Articles of Incorporation (viewable here).

Considering the distinct purposes and operations of both organizations, we do not believe that there is any likelihood of confusion between the two. However, in order to respect your concern, provide further clarity, and to honor our commitment to transparency, we have pre-emptively added the following text to the footer of our website:

The WP Community Collective is not affiliated with the WordPress Foundation or the WordPress open source project.

Given the above, and as the name of our collective continues to accurately reflect our mission and foundational roots, we do not plan to make any additional changes at this time.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss ways our organizations can collaborate to support both the WordPress community and the broader open-source ecosystem. We believe our mutual commitment to strengthening open-source contributions and the well-being of our respective communities presents meaningful opportunities for partnership. 

Please feel free to reach out again at any time.

Thanks,
Sé Reed
—
President and CEO
The WP Community Collective