The magazine yesterday accepted Leope's defence that he did not create a fake cover of Forbes Africa with his image and a tag line endorsing his energy drink which he posted on Twitter. But it held him responsible for the "endorsement" of the image on social media when he posted and retweeted it without a disclaimer, creating "confusion among our readers".
"Leope has duly acknowledged our concerns and has agreed to take down the image from his social media networks," said the magazine's marketing executive, Sian Schlebusch.
She said their intentions were "purely to safeguard the Forbes Africa trademark and brand name, and protect our readers from being misled by 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," said Schlebusch.
Forbes Africa said the fabricated cover resembled a 28 October 2013 Forbes US cover featuring Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.
Leope, who describes himself as a philanthropist, said yesterday he was "disappointed" that people focused on the image and ignored the actual article on Forbes' website, where his energy drink featured "as one of the fastest growing in Africa".
"Even if I had done it (the image), it is disappointing that black people focused on the image and did not even read the story."
He said he had learnt that "only a few people will be with you when you are going through a storm".
Source: Business Day, via I-Net Bridge
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