It gives Automattic long term security and the ability to protect the license against competitors (like it did against WP Engine). As to your identity, I asked because I like to know who I am talking to and what your intentions are.

I always thought of this TM transfer as unusual and generous on Automattic's part (since most other OS companies just keep TM rights for themselves), but apparently you don't. And yes, the license is perpetual, irrevocable, and exclusive. That's not unusual for a TM license.

The company gets to run wordpress.com, the foundation can do whatever it wants with the TM (with the exception of giving the same license it gave to Automattic to someone else). That's the balance we chose.

It went from the company owning everything, to the foundation owning the TM and controlling its usage, and the company getting a license to keep running WordPress.com. I reconcile the statement and the license by saying that both sides got what they needed.

You also ask "How do you reconcile the public announcements surrounding the trademark donation with the reality of Automattic's "exclusive", "perpetual" and "irrevocable" license?" The TM transfer was about re-balancing things between the company and the open source project.

You asked "However, you avoided the central question: What did the transfer accomplish? What was the benefit to the community?" which is what I responded to, i.e. I'm not avoiding your questions.

The community and WP users and customers as a whole benefit when TM usage across the ecosystem can't be directed by one commercial entity towards their own goals. BTW, you make it sound like you speak for the WP community - who are you?

What did the transfer accomplish? It moved TM control (for anything other than wordpress.com) outside of Automattic, so no company, Automattic or a successor company, controls how the TM is used as part of the open source project, WordCamps, plugins, themes, freelancers, agencies, etc.

Hard to get nuanced in short comments, but I stand behind the TM decisions we made 14+ years ago. Not easy to thread the commercial/non-commercial needle. I think WP's enduring success across open source and thousands of businesses shows that we got some things right.

The transfer accomplished a split of commercial and non-commercial rights. Commercial rights to A8c, frozen at wp.com/.tv (no new products beyond that). Non-commercial rights to foundation so all open source parts of WP can run fully independent of any company.

The license says that it is for a specific use ("in connection with..."): Hosting of blogs/sites on wordpress.com (and .tv).

We convinced Automattic's investors to transfer the TM to a foundation. In exchange, Automattic got rights to use the TM to keep operating WordPress.com (that's what the document above is about). (2/2)

Sure. Automattic originally owned the WordPress trademark (because as a company we had the resources to defend the TM against numerous scammers and squatters). After a few years, we decided the TM would be in safer hands at a foundation (in case Automattic went under). (1/2)