A trademark dispute over MeshCore [LWN.net]

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A trademark dispute over MeshCore

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By Daroc Alden<br>May 29, 2026

MeshCore is a relatively new project, started in January 2025, that aims<br>to build a scalable mesh network using low-power long-distance radios. While<br>many other projects of the same general nature have been tried before, MeshCore<br>grew quickly because of its more efficient message routing and enthusiastic<br>community. In early 2026, an early proponent of the project made a sudden shift<br>that left the rest of the community stunned and embroiled in a trademark dispute.

MeshCore is a MIT-licensed portable C++ library that has been adapted to a range of<br>long-range radio (LoRa)<br>devices. The project also provides a

web-based flasher<br>to load pre-made firmware onto supported devices,

Home Assistant integration,<br>and bindings for other languages. Unlike

Meshtastic (another LoRa mesh-networking project that LWN<br>covered in 2025), it uses an actual<br>distributed routing protocol, rather than relying on a

gossip protocol. Unlike

Reticulum, it aims to be simple and usable on low-power embedded devices.<br>There are more than 40,000 users all across the world identified by<br>the MeshCore node map,<br>many of whom use the project for reliable radio communication while<br>hiking, to collect data from remote sensors, or simply because they're<br>interested in radio mesh networks.

Many of those enthusiasts found their way to the project via Andy Kirby's<br>YouTube channel.<br>He is (or was) a MeshCore enthusiast who produced<br>engaging videos about the<br>project, encouraging people to try it and explaining what it can do. He<br>also ran the project's web site and a Discord server popular among users of the<br>project, acting as a community organizer and promoter. (The project got a<br>separate,

official Discord server in the summer of 2025.) While not a developer,<br>Kirby has certainly contributed to the rapid growth of the project.

In March, he released proprietary a

companion app for MeshCore, called MeshOS, that helps with managing<br>devices running MeshCore firmware from a smartphone. It quickly<br>became clear that Kirby was using large language models (LLMs) to work on the app,<br>without disclosing this: he released six new versions with<br>new features in just 15 days. While the MeshCore community is strongly<br>against incorporating LLM-written work (according to a poll the core contributors<br>to the project performed on April 11), it was also upset about the lack of<br>disclosure. MeshCore did accept

one LLM-assisted pull request, which included a<br>disclosure of that fact, in early March.

MeshCore's existing app (named, with great creativity, "MeshCore") is<br>developed by Liam Cottle, who is a human.<br>The application is free to use, although it does not appear to be open source.<br>Other open-source software that can communicate with MeshCore devices over<br>Bluetooth exists as well, and the project publishes documentation on how to<br>connect to a device running its firmware.<br>Kirby's application, which provides many of the same features as the official<br>app, requires<br>purchasing a license in order to operate it.

Around the same time,

the MeshCore web site that Kirby maintained<br>was updated to make it look as though MeshOS was required to use MeshCore,<br>redirecting links from the official MeshCore application to refer to MeshOS.<br>Options to donate to the MeshCore project or buy a pre-flashed device were<br>removed from the web site's store page, leaving licenses (including ones for<br>MeshOS) the only products one could buy there. Then,<br>on March 29, a law firm working on his behalf filed

a trademark application with the UK's Intellectual Property office asserting<br>that Kirby owns the "MeshCore" trademark. That application is still pending at<br>time of writing.

Kirby had not<br>discussed these plans with the core developers ahead of time. The project's developers<br>swiftly created<br>a new web site with a different design to set<br>itself apart from Kirby's web site, and shared<br>a blog post<br>explaining their side of the story. Shortly thereafter, Kirby's web site was<br>updated with a similar design, despite requests from the core team members<br>that he not do that. Today, the two web sites look similar, and it would be<br>fairly easy for a user who was not in the know to become confused about which<br>one is official — although the project's GitHub organization does link to the<br>new web site.

The

UK Trade Marks Act of 1994 (as amended) that governs the registration...