Now, as I'm sure you remember, we're all being extra careful these days to not refer to Diddy as Diddy, unless we are referring to Diddy, because Diddy isn't going by the name of Diddy in the UK anymore. Outside the UK there's no agreement one way or the other, so Diddy can be called Diddy, and Diddy can be called Diddy, and that's all fine. Now, we here at CMU have been sticking to this rule steadfastly, and I am sure you have to. Unfortunately, it seems Diddy hasn't. So, now Diddy is suing. You're keeping up with all this aren't you?
This all relates to a previously reported agreement between American hip hop mogul and rap star Sean 'Diddy' Coombs and British music producer Richard 'Diddy' Dearlove. Dearlove claimed he had been using the Diddy name longer and that therefore Coombs breached his UK trademark when he dropped the 'P' from his stage name back in, oh I don't know, whenever it was. The two Diddys (Diddies?) reached a deal last September in which Coombs agreed to not use the name in the UK (as well as to pay Dearlove damages and legal costs).
But Dearlove yesterday launched litigation in the High Court claiming that Coombs had breached that agreement by using the Diddy name on his MySpace and YouTube pages which means that, while when British fans access Coombs' official website they are presented with a UK specific site that refers to Coombs as P Diddy, if they go to his pages on the networking and content sharing websites they see Diddy being used. Of course, those pages are hosted in the US and Coombs himself is unable to stop people in the UK from seeing them (only MySpace and YouTube could do such filtering), but Dearlove's lawyers claim that is not their problem, and that Coombs is obligated to stop material containing the Diddy name from being seen in the UK, even if that means having to change US based material too.
Dearlove's lawyer Iain Purvis told the Associated Press yesterday: "We want him either to use a neutral name like P Diddy or to shut them down. It may be tough for him, but that is just unfortunate. He has made his bed, he should lie in it".
Diddy, I mean, P Diddy, that is to say, Sean P Puff Diddy Daddy Coombs, is yet to respond to the latest action.