Intel Sues John McAfee Over Naming Rights for New Privacy Project

John McAfee, the billionaire software engineer and Bitcoin lover, appears to have found himself in hot water again. Earlier today, the millionaire and crypto enthusiast took to Twitter to reveal that microprocessor manufacturer Intel Corporation was suing him over one of his projects.

Intel has sued me over the name "GhostbyMcAfee".

The buyers of my old company are too foolish to understand that whatever I create only helps their now pitiful product.

Anyway …

"GhostbyJohnMcAfee", while acceptable, seems clunky.

Any suggestions?

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 22, 2020

McAfee Can’t Use His Name Anymore

As McAfee’s tweet explained, Intel filed a lawsuit against him over GhostbyMcAfee, a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) coin that he designed to improve anonymity blockchain transactions. He explained that the microchip manufacturer was now taking him to court as part of a mission to distance themselves from the product.

The origins of the case go back to McAfee and his rise to fame. The English-American developer became famous in the dot com boom after he developed McAfee Associates in 1987. The company developed the McAfee Antivirus, one of the world’s first and most popular antivirus programs.

McAfee sold his shares in McAfee Associates in the 90s for a reported $100 million. In 2010, Intel Corp purchased the company — along with the world-famous antivirus. McAfee has so far gone on to live the quintessential multimillionaire life. He’s purchased multiple homes, a fleet of jets, and more. He even launched a campaign for President of the United States last year, although that fizzled out — thanks to his never-ending spate of controversies.

However, McAfee recently decided to put his software development acumen to good use, developing Ghost as a means of improving anonymity in the crypto and blockchain space. The service’s distributed exchange went live last month, according to a Twitter announcement from McAfee.

Now, it would appear that Intel is trying to distance itself from it. The company appears to believe that his use of the “McAfee” name suggests that the project has a link with it.

“The buyers of my old company are too foolish to understand that whatever I create only helps their now pitiful product,” McAfee said.

He added in a separate tweet that he maintains the right to use his name and identity for something that he created.

GhostbyMcAfee’s Separate Scandal

It’s unclear how this case could go. Intel hasn’t made any significant forays into the crypto space yet, suggesting that it might not be a fan of the assets. Thus, it would attempt to clarify the origins of any implied link. McAfee appears to be resolute in his ability to use his name for the product. While GhostbyMcAfee is already up and running, the project has also come under intense scrutiny.

The service has been the bone of contention for months now, after McAfee tweeted that the service “copy and pasted” parts of its whitepaper from PIVX, a privacy-centric PoS cryptocurrency forked from DASH.

PIVX itself is poised to launch a privacy protocol using privacy-focused coin ZCash soon. Even at that, the millionaire said he plans to sue PIVX for defamation.

 “PIVX is attempting to claim that their source code is Public Domain, but that the description of how it all works (The White Paper) is not. “Claiming a product is open source while withholding the documentation is fraud. Pure and simple. I will soon demonstrate that in the courts,” McAfee tweeted.