DJ Sbu and Forbes Africa squash cover beef

A mock cover of Forbes featuring Sbu holding a can of his Mo Faya energy drink has been doing the rounds, causing Forbes to release a statement earlier this week accusing the DJ of trademark infringement and misrepresentation.

However, the magazine released this statement yesterday:

“On the 23rd of March 2015 Forbes Africa released a press statement informing the general public of a false Forbes Africa cover featuring Sbusiso Leope.

The pending issue of trademark infringement and misrepresentation between Forbes Africa and Mr. Sbusiso Leope has attained closure, and has been resolved amicably.

The image of Mr. Sbusiso Leope’s with the beverage MoFaya on the Forbes Africa cover (the ‘Image’) contains the unauthorised use of our trademark, brand name and logo. Further, the endorsement of the Image on social media, by posting and retweeting said image, contains no disclaimers and has created much confusion amongst our readers. While, Mr. Leope admits that he did not create the Image, our fundamental contention is the Image endorsed by him on social media is the unlicensed use of Forbes Africa’s exclusive intellectual property rights. Further, the Image is misleading and represents an affiliation that does not exist and has not been approved by Forbes Africa. Mr. Leope has duly acknowledged our concerns and has agreed to take down the Image from his social media networks. It is also important to note that Mr Leope has made it clear that it was not his intention to mislead our readers.

We seek to state that our intentions are purely to safeguard the Forbes Africa trademark and brand name, and protect our readers from being misled by the ‘Image.’ Mr. Leope’s spirit of entrepreneurship has been featured in Forbes.com USA, and we duly acknowledge that. The matter is resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.”

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