Diddy seems to think that he owns the common adjective “sexy” and that he alone holds the rights. He said he is the true “King of Sexy” and that he let Justin Timberlake “borrow” the term for his latest CD:

Victoria’s Secret must have called up Diddy before the launch of their Very Sexy bras to make sure he approved of their use of the word. Or maybe they’re paying him royalties.

Oh wait - I dated a patent attorney a while ago, and I think the way it works is that you only have rights to a trademark within a certain industry. In that case Diddy is the sole “sexy” singer and Timberlake indeed needs to bow to him in order to call himself sexy. All other professions and industries can be sexy without Diddy’s approval.

Timberlake album cover found at Cake and Ice Cream. Diddy pictures from yeeeah. The last few photos of Justin Timberlake are high resolution from an Observer photo shoot found at TimberlakeNow.net.