File under “You Couldn’t Make It Up”. The Economist magazine, which is online at economist.com, has failed in its bid to win control of the theeconomist.com domain, because its owner had never heard of magazine. The domain was registered by Jason Rose back in 1996 - two years after the creation of economist.com - but has carried only a picture of Alan Greenspan for the last five years.

The magazine went to arbitration via the World Intellectual Property Organisation in November, arguing Rose was abusing its trademark and stating the obvious - former Fed chairman Greenspan is no longer an economist. Rose protested the site had not been updated due to ill health. But whilst WIPO agreed on the trademark issue it did not support the claim the domain was registered in bad faith because Rose successfully argued he had never heard of The Economist back in 1996. Via Out-Law.