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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is a known businessman, and also the founder of EasyJet. He created the low-cost airline in 1995. As the year passed, he expanded his business to its peak by creating different companies using the brand name "easy". The term “Easy” includes businesses like easyHotel, easyCar, easyBus, and many more. So, to protect his brand name, Sir Stelios applied for the trademark. He wants his brand name "Easy" trademarked in different industries. But recently he faced some legal problems in protecting these trademarks.
This case “EasyJet Founder Faces Setback in Trademark Dispute” highlights the difficulties for Sir Stelios. Let’s take a look and discuss what it means for him and his company.
EasyJet, low-cost air travel, Sir Stelios came up with an idea to build and it became very successful. So, he decided with a plan to expand his business by using the same branding for other services too. This decision creates more services that are easyHotel, easyCar, easyBus, and easyStorage. They own these services and manage these brands with their full effort.
If you want to protect your name then you have to register that name. Sir Stelios also applied for a trademark and they want to secure many brand names that include the term “easy”. They want no other company to use the word "easy" in their business names. If any company could use a similar one then it can confuse customers. For many years easyGroup has taken legal actions and argued that they were trying to benefit from the success of the easy brand.
EasyGroup has taken legal action but the UK High Court ruled against easyGroup. The judge said that Easyfundraising’s business was very different from easyGroup’s services. There is no risk or confusion in selling your products.
The judge also noticed that those customers who are using Easyfundraising know that it is a charity-related business, not a commercial business. Therefore, the court decided that Easyfundraising could continue using its name, and easyGroup could not stop them.This decision was a major setback for Sir Stelios and his company. Now, they could not control the "easy" brand. This means if other businesses want to use similar words, then it might be used without any legal consequences. So, the case “EasyJet Founder Faces Setback in Trademark Dispute” becomes a big loss for Sir Stelios.
There is one more defeat faced by easyGroup due to the court’s ruling. The decision of the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is to cancel several of its trademarks. These trademarks are "eazy," "easi," and "easyServices”. They found that easyGroup didn’t have enough proof that these trademarks were being actively used in business. The evidence that was submitted by easyGroup to defend itself is as follows -
● Some Screenshots from YouTube videos
● An image of a van with the "easy" branding
● Lastly, a Wikipedia page that mentioned about the easyGroup
The IPO said that this evidence was not strong enough. The trademark must be shown actively working but easyGroup has not shown any proof of actual commercial activity related to these names. Therefore, in this case, “EasyJet Founder Faces Setback in Trademark Dispute” IPO decided to revoke these trademarks. They also declare that anybody who wants to use this word can use it with any legal complications.
Sir Stelios was not happy with their decision and said that the IPO’s ruling was "insignificant”. Therefore, he wants to appeal the High Court’s decision in the EasyFundraising case.