The Smoking Gun's relevation earlier this week that an American man's application for a trademark on the name Obama bin Laden was thrown out (the New York Times's take includes the T-shirt design Alexandre Batlle wanted to use it on) has led us to track down a few others who have previously transposed the names of the terrorist leader and presidential hopeful. But they are not the rabid talkshow hosts you might expect - one is Edward Kennedy, the other an introduction to an item on CNN. According to TPM Muckraker, the channel has now mixed up Obama and Osama three times and Osama with Saddam Hussein twice.
How do they do it? I don't know. But sometimes it is deliberate, and with the name of Barack Hussein Obama it is not surprising that a Washington Post editorial noted a trend among conservatives to use it in full. "This would be merely juvenile if it weren't so contemptible," the paper declared.
For his part, Mr Batlle claims to have no axe to grind. He describes himself as more of a Democrat than a Republican and says his principal interest was in making some money. His application for the trademark was rejected on the basis it was "scandalous" and he would need the permission of both Mr Obama and Bin Laden (neither of whom, it has to be said, would have much to gain).
And if all this wasn't unlikely enough, the Patent and Trademark Office lawyer who refused him was called Bush.
