Pity little Vulcan Ventures. The tiny, publicly-quoted Canadian minerals firm has been forced to change its name because it clashes with a that of private investments group of Microsoft co-founder and multibillionaire Paul Allen. Mr Allen uses the group to invest in tech firms. The Canadian group lost its rights to the name even though the Allen enterprise had no known presence in Canada.

Now its president Roger MacInnis is looking for a new name and is open to suggestions from the public. "The only proviso is that the name cannot be similar to the name of any private company in the world owned by a multibillionaire," he said.