Big trouble in the MeshCore paradise — or just sensationalism, with nothing really changing except a new project name and yet another new project homepage domain on the horizon?
May 2026 Update on MeshCore Trademark dispute
One contributor allegedly did not coordinate with the founding MeshCore development core team and applied for the UK (United Kingdom) word trademark “MeshCore” on March 29, 2026, and for the EU (European Union) word trademark “MeshCore” on April 20, 2026. He applied for both trademarks in the name of his company, Cloudsto Electronics Ltd., which is located in Hertfordshire, UK:
Here you find all details and status about the EU “MeshCore” word trademark application: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/019350654
The applied EU word trademark “MeshCore” is for the Nice class 9 (Downloadable software) and Nice class 42 (Software as a service [SaaS]; Platform as a service [PaaS]; Software development) and the trademark application is still under examination on 16 May 2026.
Just 3 days after the EU MeshCore trademark application, the founding developers Liam Cottle and Scott Powell published the article Meshcore.io – Why The Split?, explaining the trademark dispute and a vibe coding dispute from their view and intruduced their own new website Domains and social media resources:
- Official Website: https://meshcore.io
- Latest Updates: https://blog.meshcore.io
- Technical Docs: https://docs.meshcore.io
- Official GitHub: https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/meshcore
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/meshcore
- Discord: https://meshcore.gg
On 3 May 2026 @rippleradios, probably the account of founding core developer Scott Powell, published following comment at the YouTube posting “MeshCore Team Feud: Here’s What Happened“, which is the reason to change all links in my articles talking also about MeshCore to the new ones promoted by Scott Powell and Liam:
I assume that if the “MeshCore” word trademark application successfully passes examination and an EU-wide trademark is granted to Cloudsto Electronics Ltd., the core development team around Scott and Liam may ultimately have little choice but to adopt a new project name to replace “MeshCore”, among other reasons to avoid confusion.
MeshCore AI Vibe Coding dispute
“Vibe coding” is a recent term for software development where developers describe desired code behavior in natural language and let AI generate the implementation. Human review may be limited or secondary.
The term became popular after AI coding agents like Anthropic Claude Code and OpenAI Codex.
Some developers claimed that parts of apps and tooling were “majority vibe coded” and this was not transparently communicated.
The dispute became more serious because MeshCore is not just a toy app, it is firmware and networking infrastructure used for off-grid communication systems which might be helpful in emergency cases.
But, one of our own, …, decided to branch out and extensively use Claude Code, and has decided to aggressively take over all of the components of the MeshCore ecosystem: standalone devices, mobile app, web flasher and web config tools.
Source: Meshcore.io – Why The Split?
Rundown
I personally see the whole affair like GitHub user aremmell in his comment to the Meshcore.io – Why The Split? article:
…
If it comes down to it, and he wants to go to court, walk the F away. Everyone will stick with you guys (including myself and everyone I’ve sent this link to). Change the name to Meshnation, Meshmonster, Meshmaniac, MeshMob, whatever. It’s just a name. Trademark that, before announcing it, and then Andy and Claude can go get married and live happily ever after.
— 2¢ from someone who’s been in a similar situation, except I spent 3 years in court wasting all of the company’s (my) time and money–I almost had to file bankruptcy. The only winners are the attorneys.
…
The MeshCore project apparently lacked timely word trademark and Internet domain registrations by a small limited liability corporation owned by the initial project founders to protect the open source project from later hostile trademark and domain claims.
In my experience working with trademarks at sound companies, it was recommended to apply for word trademarks using standard uppercase characters only (like “MESHTASTIC“), as this generally provides broader protection covering different combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters within the trademark.
Therefore, in my opinion, filing UK and EU word trademark applications for “MeshCore” without uppercase characters only may be just as suboptimal as choosing meshcore.io as the new homepage at meshcore.io by the MeshCore core developer team, because the .io domain (British Indian Ocean Territory, under UK jurisdiction?) could potentially be affected if the UK word trademark application is granted to Cloudsto Electronics Ltd.
In contrast, the “MESHTASTIC” word trademark registered through the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization of the United Nations) for Nice Class 9 (“Downloadable software”), owned by Meshtastic LLC, with a basic application filed on 4 June 2020 and the early registration of the .org and .com domains, appears to represent good practice to protect open source projects from hostile trademark and domain claims in my view. Later, an additional WIPO figurative trademark for the Meshtastic logo, featuring a stylized letter “M” formed with a forward slash, was also filed at an early stage, with the basic application submitted on 18 March 2024.
Other Meshtastic and MeshCore blogposts
Comments are welcome
Constructive comments (via the comment function at the bottom of this page) about Meshtastic vs. MeshCore are greatly appreciated and suitable changes and additions to this blog post will be taken into account. All statements in this blog post reflect the personal opinion of the author, which may not always be accurate due to incomplete information and are not factual claims.
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