smacky and bucky

I received a promo copy of the new CD by Puffy AmiYumi, and it got me thinking about names and copyright law. The band, best known in America for the theme song to Teen Titans, is huge in Japan. They had their own TV show, sold millions of CDs, and played to packed stadiums. In Japan, they're called Puffy. In the United States, there's a guy named Sean Combs (likes to sample top-40 hits and talk over them) who had the nickname Puffy. He apparently trademarked the name in America, so when the band started releasing music here, they had to alter their name. So they added their first names to the band name (Ami and Yumi). They remain known by that name here, even though Sean has since changed his nickname a few times since then. He now goes by Diddy. But in a glowing example of the wheel of karma, there's a DJ in England who has apparently trademarked the name Diddy, so in England, Sean can't release his CDs under that name.