John McAfee wants to keep his name and would not let anyone take it away from him. Along with MGT Capital Investments, he filed a lawsuit against Intel on Friday.
After selling his assets to Intel, McAfee joined MGT Capital Investments and was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer. Shortly after, the company's stocks shoot up to $5.38 a share from only 36 cents. In the course of the event, the company announced its acquisition process of D-Vasive which is a provider of prominent superiority anti-spy software. With that, McAfee wants to change the name of the company to John McAfee Global Technologies, Inc., according to Gizmodo.
However, in June, Intel warned to take legal action knowing the plan of company name change considered to be an apparent breach of the "McAfee" trademark which Intel owned. The lawsuit was filed three months after an Intel lawyer sent a letter that such plan of the name change will result in trademark violation.
McAfee, founder of the anti-virus company with the same name filed a lawsuit against Intel Corporation that acquired the company back in 1991. Intel claims that since he already sold his assets to the PC microprocessor manufacturer, he lost any right to make use of the McAfee name in association with security solutions and services.
"Any use of the McAfee name in connection with your company and its provision of D-Vasive's anti-spy 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," wrote Kelly Smith, Intel managing counsel.
But McAfee sees things differently. He and MGT referred to a document in 1991 where McAfee Associates sold specific assets to McAfee Associates LP. He did not authorize the rights to his name or consent to not use his name while having a business.
According to Slashdot, Intel warned McAfee informing him that any usage of his name will intrude on the company's trademarks that it obtained with the McAfee deal in 2010, as stated in his complaint that was filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday.
The infringement case will be determined in court after all where McAfee and MGT added that Intel changed the McAfee software line to Intel Security in 2014.
