Intel tells John McAfee he can't use his own name

[midian182]

Back in May, ever-controversial John McAfee became the executive chairman and CEO of MGT Capital Investments - a small startup that invests in fantasy sports and mobile games – following its acquisition of his D-Vasive antispy software firm. One of his first moves was to rename the company after himself, but it seems Intel isn’t happy with this idea, and now the situation appears to be heading for the courts.

So why can’t McAfee use his own name? According to recently filed documents in the Manhattan federal court, Intel had threatened to take legal action over the change back in June as it allegedly infringes on the “McAfee” trademark that the chipmaker owns.

Intel acquired the McAfee antivirus software company, along with the brand trademarks, for $7.68 billion back in 2010. A letter from Intel managing counsel Kelly Smith reads: “As you surely are aware, Intel (under its Intel Security division) uses the McAfee trademark in connection with its portfolio of antivirus and other security solutions and services. Further, McAfee Inc. owns numerous registrations for McAfee and McAfee formative trademarks around the world. Through extensive use, the McAfee trademark is a strong mark and extremely well known in the industry.”

“Any use of the McAfee name in connection with your company and its provision of D-Vasive’s antispy software or other security solutions would surely be likely to confuse customers as to the source of your company’s products, and/or suggest some affiliation or relationship with McAfee or Intel that does not exist.”

McAfee and MGT filed a lawsuit against Intel on Friday, citing an “Asset Acquisition Agreement” from 1991, back when McAfee sold his assets to the antivirus company. They claim it proves he still has the right to use his name.

Intel confirmed in 2014 that it planned to start phasing out the McAfee brand in favor of “Intel Security,” another factor McAfee says should be taken into consideration.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66212-intel-tells-john-mcafee-cant-use-own-name.html

 

[Uncle Al]

In as much as they are not in competing industries and he is using his own personal name, I don't think Intel will come out on top, unless there is SPECIFIC language in the purchase contract that states as much. Of course, if he was foolish enough to sign the contract without himself and/or his lawyers reading it, he gets what he deserves!

 

[VitalyT]

He should go by his maiden name of Johnnie Walker.

To me he looks like someone with a drinking problem, either in the past or ongoing.

In the world of IT this guy is like Trump in politics, a dumb reject with deep pockets.

 

[stewi0001]

The brand name of McAfee is not a good thing in my book.

 

[Hayder Saeed]

Changing a brand name means loss, If that's what you want to do,go ahead and shoot yourself. In the end you will be history Microsoft...RIP(I.e ripped in and out to pieces).

 

[Gars]

Changing a brand name means loss, If that's what you want to do,go ahead and shoot yourself. In the end you will be history Microsoft...RIP(I.e ripped in and out to pieces).

I agree in the first part, ... thats the same MS doing.
I was more considered at the time, why the blue giant doing this?
-edit-
not the BG
but Intel? why

 

[Jennifer Little]

He should go by his maiden name of Johnnie Walker.

To me he looks like someone with a drinking problem, either in the past or ongoing.

You seem too tightly wound to be an innovator. Steve Jobs was on LSD and Bill Gates was smoking. Get over your Ltd. style syndrome. The Brits left a long time ago. Time to loosen the chains.

 

[VitalyT]

You seem too tightly wound to be an innovator. Steve Jobs was on LSD and Bill Gates was smoking. Get over your Ltd. style syndrome. The Brits left a long time ago. Time to loosen the chains.

As far as innovations go, McAfee is at the very bottom of the pool. In fact, he never created anything. He had engineers to write an antivirus for the company he registered, to which he generously gave his own name. Such a douche.

I work in a company that uses his antivirus, and there is hardly anyone who doesn't hate that crap, one which slows the PC all the time and misidentifies programs for viruses.

He is a bad joke for the whole industry, just like Al Gore for politics. Correction, these days he is probably more comparable to Trump.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Not that I agree with Intel, but McAfee only has himself to blame for selling his name. After all he not only did it to himself, but he did it to everyone else with the name McAfee. That is when he used his name as a business name.

 

[Jack007]

Only early on mcafee products were good. after that it went straight down the gutter in the computer world thats why his advisors told him to sell all his assets along with the company before it fully sank. He talks crap as usual when he says he has one got the best computer tech teams in the world when in reality he got college flunks that dont push no weight in the tech industry. All he can do is talk like trump and hope someone believes him which nobody does.

 

[seefizzle]

You seem too tightly wound to be an innovator. Steve Jobs was on LSD and Bill Gates was smoking. Get over your Ltd. style syndrome. The Brits left a long time ago. Time to loosen the chains.

As far as innovations go, McAfee is at the very bottom of the pool. In fact, he never created anything. He had engineers to write an antivirus for the company he registered, to which he generously gave his own name. Such a douche.

I work in a company that uses his antivirus, and there is hardly anyone who doesn't hate that crap, one which slows the PC all the time and misidentifies programs for viruses.

He is a bad joke for the whole industry, just like Al Gore for politics. Correction, these days he is probably more comparable to Trump.

I don't think you know very much if anything at all about John Mcafee. Mcafee hasn't been involved with Mcafee antivirus since 1994 so whatever problems you have with Mcafee antivirus have little to do with John Mcafee.

John Mcafee might be crazy but he's pretty awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg

 

[Teko03]

I work in a company that uses his antivirus, and there is hardly anyone who doesn't hate that crap, one which slows the PC all the time and misidentifies programs for viruses.

He is a bad joke for the whole industry, just like Al Gore for politics. Correction, these days he is probably more comparable to Trump.

But "his" antivirus is not his, Intel has owned it since 2010...so shouldn't your dislike be towards Intel's Security Division? Just saying...

 

[Raoul Duke]

Welcome to the modern world, I'm almost surprised Intel lets him use his name for his personal life LOL

 

[wiyosaya]

This reminds me of McDonald's suing a small restaurant in Cayman Islands, UK - McDonald's lost - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_legal_cases#MacDonald.27s_.28UK_-_Cayman_Islands.29

 

[MonsterZero]

This is what you get for being a sell out, maybe he will rethink is future business deals.

 

[DelJo63]

Operating a business or legal entity in your own personal name is not only foolish, but impedes the use of it latter as in this case. Create your business in some abstract name and then associate your personal as CEO, or Joe Dow, Founder and Owner. When you sell the abstract company, your name is still yours and can be reused as you see fit.

McAfee & Trump just had to have their name on the Marquee - - pure narcissism.

 

[batsdude]

Sadly, he WILL lose any court challenge, just as Col Sanders did when he wanted his name and image removed from KFC when he discovered that, the mashed 'potatoes' (quote) "...tasted like wallpaper paste!". The courts set a precedent ruling his name and image were no longer his to control when he sold the company to corporate entities that cared less about his version of quality, in favor of corporate greed.

 

[BrianMontanye]

This is what you get for being a sell out, maybe he will rethink is future business deals.

There are 7.68 billion reasons why he won't rethink that sale. I'll let you figure out what they are.

 

[commanderasus]

Only the lawyers will really win taking who know how much of those 7.68 billion reasons

 

[Jack007]

I don't think you know very much if anything at all about John Mcafee. Mcafee hasn't been involved with Mcafee antivirus since 1994 so whatever problems you have with Mcafee antivirus have little to do with John Mcafee.

John Mcafee might be crazy but he's pretty awesome.

I know mcafee has drug induced hallucinations that he can do this and that. and if you work in a workforce that use mcafee antivirus we tech guys or hackers would laugh. we techs are at the top of the food chain playing with quad cpu servers, 1tb of ram, 4 petabytes of hard drive space and fiberoptic links. And let Brittania lead the way. She knows best.

 

[risc32]

He also sold the rights to his personal stories to Mr.. Peterson.
omg, some of you are dense.as pointed out, he hasn't had anything to do with the company for a long time. And he is bad because he had people write a program and he slapped his name on it? Big deal, that's how things work. Did he steal it from the original programmers?

 

[Tanstar]

In as much as they are not in competing industries and he is using his own personal name, I don't think Intel will come out on top, unless there is SPECIFIC language in the purchase contract that states as much. Of course, if he was foolish enough to sign the contract without himself and/or his lawyers reading it, he gets what he deserves!

The new company sells anti-virus software, which is specifically what Intel bought from him originally. How does it get more "competing industries" than that?