PUFFY are a Japanese pop duo who were created by a record label and a management company. They were always going to be a high-concept act, crossing The Monkees with The Spice Girls for an Asian audience.

Puffy release heavily stylised pop music with the accent on their image, and they are a massive success story in Japan. Apart from albums, you can find them on everything from keyrings to pencil cases to clothes. They call it "Puffy-Mania". They have made some inroads into the US market, but there they legally have to be called Puffy AmiYumi because of issues with the rapper once known as Puff Daddy.

Here's where it all gets a bit complicated: the US rapper, born Sean John Combs, has at various times been known as Sean John, Puff, Puffy, Puff Daddy and P Diddy. As Sean John he unveiled his own clothing line, which has become one of the most successful fashion brands ever started by a celebrity. An added-on after-shave/perfume line bearing the same name also proved to be wildly successful.

In his musical career, Sean John Combs has released under the names Puff Daddy, P Diddy and Diddy. The latter, plain Diddy, is now his new registered name. He announced this on US TV last month. His explanation for this newest name change from P Diddy to Diddy was stunningly simple: "The P was getting between me and my fans," he said.

Unfortunately, in Ireland and Britain the P will still get between him and his fans because legally he will still have to be known as P Diddy. This is because there is already a Diddy on this side of the Atlantic. He is a music producer whose real name is Richard Dearlove, but has been trading under the Diddy name since 1992. Diddy was originally going to go to court to protect his name back in 2001 when Puff Daddy became P Diddy but he couldn't on account of serious health problems.

When P Diddy became just Diddy, though, the UK Diddy had to act. "I started getting e-mails from Puerto Rican girls asking if they could be in my video and people were asking me to look at their clothing line," he says. "My lawyers and I were going to convince the court that there was confusion caused by two people trading under the same name."

Diddy vs Diddy (as it might have been called) was listed for next month. But just last week, in a surprising move, P Diddy agreed to an out-of-court settlement. The latter has agreed to pay the UK Diddy €15,000 damages and more than $150,000 in legal costs. He also agreed that he would remain P Diddy in the UK and Ireland.

This entails a massively expensive rebranding of the US Diddy on this side of the Atlantic, in that his name will have to be changed on everything. However, having once prevented a Japanese band from using his name, P Diddy knew he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on in the UK courts.

Where all this leaves Ken Dodd and his Diddy men remains to be seen. The Knotty Ash residents are a Dadaist type ensemble who have been played on stage by child actors over the years. The Diddy men do have a musical pedigree which would be vital if ever they were to contest P Diddy or the UK Diddy over the ownership of the Diddy name. The Song Of The Diddy Men may not have been a massive hit but it did still establish the munchkin-like troupe as musicians - of a type.

The Diddy Men vs P Diddy vs Diddy could be magnificent.