John McAfee takes Intel to task (and court) for blocking usage of his own name

Six years after Intel purchased McAfee antivirus for $7.68 billion, its founder is now in court fighting for the right to use his own name. Bloomberg reports that John McAfee has filed paperwork to sue Intel, who’s attempting to block McAfee from using his name in a new business endeavor.

Intel, for what it’s worth, hasn’t used the McAfee name on its antivirus suite since 2014. In January 2014, Intel dropped the ‘McAfee’ moniker and instead opted to market the antivirus suite under a new name, ‘Intel Security.’ According to Bloomberg, the pushback against McAfee using his own name could be due Intel’s desire to adopt the original name in an attempt to strengthen recognizability for a future sale.

Intel counsel Kerry Smith penned the following in a letter to McAfee:

Any use of the McAfee name would be likely to dilute the McAfee mark … by reducing its unique association with McAfee and Intel Corporation. Through extensive use, the McAfee trademark is a strong mark and extremely well-known in the industry.

McAfee, if successful, intends to use the name to re-brand online gaming company MGT Capital Investments, where he was named CEO and chairman in May. So far though, the rebranding to John McAfee Global Technologies Inc. has been back-burnered while the eccentric billionaire and Intel work out who owns John McAfee… the name, not the person (presumably).

via Engadget