But now Mandela, or rather the Nelson Mandela Foundation – set up by the 86-year-old statesman to promote rural education and the fight against HIV and AIDS in South Africa – is taking action.
According to the BBC, the charity is attempting to register Mandela's name, clan name Madiba and Rolihlahla, his Xhosa name, as trade marks. The foundation also hopes to trade mark Mandela's famous prison number – 46664.
Mandela has used 46664 as the name for his AIDS awareness campaign, and was hoping to use 46664 as the telephone number for the not-for-profit company set up to run the campaign, only to find that it had already been snapped up by a coin dealership known as Investgold.
Investgold has since agreed to hand over the telephone number, but has refused to stop selling "Mandela gold coins", according to reports.
The foundation has also written to all other South African companies currently using the marks and has asked them to stop, pending registration of the trade marks.