The founder of the long gone security software company McAfee Inc. is suing Intel Corporation.
The Santa Clara-based antivirus software maker was acquired by Intel in 2011 for $7.7 billion and was renamed Intel Security Group.
John McAfee was recently appointed as the CEO of MGT Capital Investments Inc. after his company D-Vasive was brought by MGT. He revealed his intentions to continue the McAfee name legacy and planned to rename MGT as John McAfee Global Technologies Inc.
His name change plans were ruined by Intel Corp. The chipmaker has stopped McAfee from a from using his own name in any of the businesses because Intel has its trademark. Using it as the name of the company would lead to trademark infringement. Basically, he can’t use “McAfee” which is the name of the former antivirus brand.
The only option McAfee was left with was to knock the court’s door and he did. He has been fighting against Intel to use his name in other businesses. In thecourt documents, the plaintiffs say that using the personal name of John McAfee in businesses “does not infringe upon [Intel’s] trademark rights or breach any agreement between parties”. The documents read the fact that Intel changed the name of the acquired company to Intel Security in 2014 and doesn’t use the brand name anymore.
Hopefully, John McAfee wins the right to use his own name.
— via Bloomberg