Forbes Sues Russian Firm Over Fake Edition

On August 2, 2011, the US business magazine Forbes filed a trademark infringement suit against a firm from Russia’s Republic of Dagestan that published a fake edition of the Forbes magazine.

Last year, the firm Neftyanik published the so-called special edition of Forbes featuring a businessman with a traditional sheep wool hat on the cover, along with the title “How to boost your capital in Dagestan”.

“Forbes Media LLC, the owner of the Forbes trademark, appealed to the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Dagestan with a lawsuit for protection of its rights violated by the illegal use of its trademark,” said Forbes representatives in a statement. The Russian firm could not be reached to comment on the issue.

The court hearing was scheduled for September 16, but we were unable to obtain information on the outcome at the time of our publication.

Last year Forbes became the owner of the Forbes.ru domain name in Russia and received USD 300,000 (EUR 212,000) in damages, after a domain name infringement case against a Russian cyber squatter.

For more information, please contact Jelena Jankovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: Reuters news agency