Entrepreneur Claims He Presented His Idea Directly to Elon Musk, Who Then Filed a Trademark Stealing It Riz Nwosu began developing a backpack based on Tesla's Cybertruck.
By Derek Major
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This story originally appeared on Black Enterprise
Riz Nwosu was a huge fan of Tesla's products and a big fan of Tesla owner Elon Musk. So much so that when Tesla released its Cybertruck in 2019, Nwosu began developing a backpack based on the vehicle.
Nwosu developed the Cyberbackpack and even pitched it to Musk and Cybertruck designer Franz von Holzhausen. The Cyberbackpack comes with a bevy of features, including a TSA-approved lock, a USB charging port, and an extra-wide opening.
Excited about his product and the meeting, Nwosu purchased Cyberbackpack.com, began taking pre-sale orders, launched the Cyberbackpack on ProductHunt, and created a Shopify website to start receiving official orders. Nwosu even started a Twitter thread tagging Musk in it and other Tesla executives about a partnership.
While he waited for a response from Musk, Nwosu discovered that Tesla filed a trademark for the word Cyberbackpack. The news stunned Nwosu.
While Tesla is a leader in electric vehicles and clean energy, the company does have its issues, and racism is one of its most significant. The automaker has faced numerous racial discrimination claims. In fact, it's faced so many complaints that the state of California has threatened to sue it. In many cases, Tesla denied wrongdoing but was forced to make payouts of more than $1 million, including paying Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator at a California Tesla plant, $137 million.
Although the news hurt Nwosu, it didn't stop him. According to AfroTech, The Cyberbackpack inventor has since filed his own trademark, adding a first use date of January 2021, and is exploring his options for the word Cyberbackpack. The inventor also still wants to partner with Tesla in the future.
Musk, meanwhile, is still trying to conduct a hostile takeover of Twitter after his first attempt last week was unsuccessful. Twitter's board members responded to the unwelcome attempt Friday by taking a so-called
""poison pill" designed to prevent the billionaire entrepreneur from completing his takeover—or at least make the whole process less appetizing.
