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John McAfee Can Finally Use His Own Name Again (fossbytes.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the call-me-John dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Fossbytes: It was last year when, John McAfee, the co-founder of an antivirus company that's now owned by Intel, took Intel to the court over the right to use his name for commercial purposes... According to a Reuters report, the US District Judge Paul Oetken has dismissed the 2016 case and the counter lawsuit filed by Intel. The two parties have settled upon a mutual agreement which allows John Mcafee to use his name for promotions, presentations, and advertisements. He can't link his name to any product or service related to cyber security and security.
McAfee told the BBC that he can't directly name a company after himself, adding "I can live with that. That certainly beats having to live with 'The Entrepreneur Formerly known as McAfee.'"

Johnny Depp is still scheduled to play McAfee in a movie called "King of the Jungle," which will focus on the period of his life when McAfee fled a police investigation in Belize.

24 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A company is a legal private entity whose ownership may change hands. Naming a company after you is just asking to lose the commercial rights to your name.
    Only a true idiot would, for the second time, use their name for a company.

    1. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Dell
      Black & Decker
      Ford
      Chrysler
      DuPont
      Eli Lilly
      Glock
      Harley Davidson
      Hewlett Packard
      JC Penney
      Sears
      Levi Strauss
      McDonalds
      Porsche
      Daimler-Benz
      DeLorean
      Lamborghini
      Ferrari
      Honda
      Kawasaki
      Peugeot
      Renault
      Proctor and Gamble
      Rolls Royce
      Mazda
      Toyota
      Suzuki
      Walt Disney

    2. Re: Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      FSF GNU would have been a success if only Mr Richard Stallman had named the company Dick Stall Man and the product Glory Hole.

    3. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Interesting
      You don't have to use the name for the company... From: Bully Hill Vineyards - Heritage, which was founded by Walter S. Taylor, whose grandfather started the Taylor Wine Company:

      Everything suddenly changed in 1977 when Coca-Cola acquired Taylor Wine. One morning Walter came into work to discover that they had filed an injunction against him and Bully Hill Vineyards— preventing him from using the word “Taylor” on anything related to Bully Hill. Walter, believing that no one had the right to take his name from him quickly appealed but could not win against the behemoth legal team assembled against him.

      In the end he was ordered to follow a list of stipulations dictating what he could and couldn’t “say” when it came to his name and ancestry. The list banned Walter:

      • From using the word “Taylor” on anything relating to Bully Hill. Period.
      • From implying that Bully Hill was connected to or the successor of Taylor Wine. It is very important to remember that Walter from birth was entrenched in everything Taylor Wine and that he and his father started Bully Hill together to continue the winemaking traditions of his family.
      • From implying that Bully Hill Vineyards was the original Taylor Wine Company. Bully Hill does sit on the original site Walter’s grandfather purchased in the late eighteen hundreds.
      • From implying that any of Walter’s ancestors are or were connected to Bully Hill Vineyards. Walter’s father was, in fact, a co-founder of Bully Hill Vineyards.
      • From implying that Walter’s ancestors passed ANYTHING on to him in the art of winemaking or grape growing. Walter was a 4th generation Taylor family winemaker and grape grower, by definition his ancestors passed on their knowledge and skills on to him.
      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    4. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

      You forgot: Trump

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    5. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 2

      And General Electric. ;)

      --GBS

    6. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'd go with Horch. It's founder, August Horch, got ousted from his company. A court ruled that he doesn't own the rights to his name, thus he named the next company Audi (Latin translation of "Horch" ("listen")).

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    7. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Interesting. I'd always just assumed it was Auto Union $foo $bar since they have the same logo.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by DeBaas · · Score: 2

      And General Electric. ;)

      --GBS

      Although when they were a startup it was still called Colonel Electric...

      --
      ---
    9. Re:Only an idiot would use their name for Company by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Well, shit... call me a fecalphile!

    10. Re: Only an idiot would use their name for Company by unixisc · · Score: 1

      No, the reason that HURD failed was that the whole project was treated as an open-ended computer science experiment, rather than a task that needed to be completed by time X, and improved periodically thereafter, like everything else - Linux, BSD, Minix, et al. Instead, they kept experimenting w/ different obscure microkernels, and never got complete. They'd have done better had they taken Minix 3, relicensed their fork under GPL3, and then built on that. In fact, all they would have needed would have been emacs, and they'd have been off to the races.

  2. I have a better name for the movie... by dyfet · · Score: 2

    Fear and Loathing in Belize.

  3. Re:I really like John McAfee (my kind of guy, lol) by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up for link to hilarious video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  4. Why? by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    McAfee the product sucks bigly. He should change his name to avoid association.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Why? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      His software was pretty good. So was Peter Norton's. When they were actually involved.

      They both sold their names with the software. That software turned into a steaming pile of junk with a marketing gimmick (preinstalled crapware, 30 days free, won't uninstall).

      There really ought to be an audit of those bastards, find the person that thought up that trick and allow the interested world to take turns kicking him in the nuts. Say 4 kicks/day for the rest of his life.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  5. Re:Jonny Depp by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 1

    Depp might feel a need to rent or borrow McAfee's digs in Belize for a few years if he doesn't watch his mouth on threats.

  6. not much seems to have changed by gravewax · · Score: 1

    Find it interesting that this is claimed as some victory for him, before he was whining about not being able to use his name for a company or security products and how unjust it was (because he sold the rights to it), nothing much in this settlement seems to change that or am I missing something?

    1. Re:not much seems to have changed by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      He has clear rules now saying what he can and cannot use his name for. That's an improvement over having to live with the constant threat of legal action if the new owners decide he broke a rule they invented on the spot.

  7. Side Story by AlanObject · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know what happened with that gal who was with him in Belize and suddenly just burned all the "research" he paid her to do and then just took off? I've always been curious about that thread of the story but haven't seen anything.

    1. Re:Side Story by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Watch Jonny Depp's movie to find out

    2. Re:Side Story by unixisc · · Score: 1

      If yeah, how did he run as a serious presidential candidate for the Libertarians 2 years ago?

    3. Re:Side Story by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      serious presidential candidate for the Libertarians

      That's contradictory on it's face.

      Are the Green, Constitutionalist and Communist Workers Party candidates also serious presidential candidates? How about Vermin?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Side Story by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I can't imagine any Communist voters who would have found something wrong enough w/ Jill Stein to go for Communist Workers.

      Typically, Libertarians are an asterisk, but this time, they were expected to do well due to the perception that both parties were fielding their weakest candidates (turned out later that the Republicans were not!) They got quite a bit of coverage from John Stossel, and McAfee was a regular in the Libertarian primary debates, which they broadcast. Also, in the general, the Libertarians were expected to do well since 2 ex Republican governors - Johnson & Weld - were on the ticket. However, turned out that the undecideds switched for Trump at the end.

      At any rate, I was describing McAfee as a serious candidate for the Libertarians. Whether Libertarians themselves are a serious factor or not is another discussion altogether.

  8. Intel McAfee? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Didn't Intel change the name of his package to Intel AntiVirus? Why are they still after his name?