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30 January 2017Trademarks

Judge rejects McAfee injunction against Intel

Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee saw his plea for an injunction against Intel fail when a US federal judge rejected the request.

McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus computer software, requested the injunction in December last year during an ongoing trademark battle between him and the technology company.

He joined technology firm MGT as executive chairman and CEO in May last year and plans were announced to change the firm’s name to John McAfee Global Technologies.

WIPR reported in September that McAfee and MGT Capital had brought a trademark non-infringement lawsuit against Intel, claiming that use of McAfee’s name doesn’t infringe Intel’s trademark rights in the McAfee name.

Intel acquired the McAfee company in 2010, renaming its security products Intel Security in 2014.

Also in September last year, Intel revealed plans to form a cybersecurity company, called McAfee, with private-equity firm TGP.

But in December, McAfee took issue with the company name, asking the court for an injunction on the deal until the trademark dispute was resolved.

Intel then hit back at the non-infringement suit, filing its amended answer to the complaint and asserting counterclaims.

In his request for an injunction, McAfee claimed that if the sale were to go forward, “any judgment awarded to plaintiffs will be ineffectual”.

McAfee requested the injunction to bar Intel from “selling, trading, assigning, leasing or otherwise transferring any alleged rights … relating to any marks, names, trade names, or entities containing the word ‘McAfee’ until the resolution of the underlying action”.

On Friday, January 27, District Judge J Paul Oetken refused to grant the preliminary injunction filed by McAfee.

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