EasyGroup, owners of flight company EasyJet, hotel chain EasyHotel and over 200 more ‘easy’-branded subsidiaries, has lost a Trademark battle with a charity shopping e-commerce company after launching a Trademark infringement claim against Easyfundraising.
The claim was launched against Easyfundraising’s founder Ian Woodroffe OBE. However, after reaching the High Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Fancourt dismissed EasyGroup’s claim entirely. In response to the claim, the Judge stated that ‘there is no identity or similarity of services provided by Easyfundraising and the services specified, the claimant’s claim of infringement as at 2005 and 2007 must fail.’
EasyGroup also alleged that Easyfundraising’s poor reputation’ caused a negative impact on the parent company’s reputation. In regards to this, Mr Justice Fancourt expressed how a large number of retailers that advertise with easyfundraising and have done so for years, including well-known and reputable high street brands such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, demonstrate that retailers do not share the claimant's view that easyfundraising has a poor reputation'.
Sir Stelios, EasyGroup’s founder, has expressed his dismay about the result, stating he was ‘disappointed with this decision which has a number of contradictions and will be appealing this judgment immediately'.
Easyfundraising, however, has stated that it hopes the results have given encouragement to other respondents to EasyGroup’s claims that they are able to win. Chief Executive of Easyfundraising made a statement following the judgment which said; ‘Our decision to not back down against EasyGroup’s ridiculous claims and tactics has been entirely vindicated, essentially, this was a trademark case over the use of the word ‘easy’ in our name, even though Easyfundraising has existed for nearly 20 years.’
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