Easy Bathrooms has defended itself against claims brought by EasyJet’s parent company, which has accused the retailer of trademark infringement over its use of the word “easy”.
EasyGroup, the company that owns EasyJet, filed its claim against Easy Bathrooms in August. The complaint alleges that Easy Bathrooms is illegally trying to benefit from EasyGroup’s intellectual property through its “easy” business name.
However, in a legal defence submitted this month, Easy Bathrooms argued that both companies have never worked in the same market sector, given Easy Bathrooms’ business is exclusively related to the sale of bathroom fixtures.
Aside from just the business’ name, EasyGroup claims that Easy Bathrooms is also infringing on its intellectual property through the use of its logo.
All EasyGroup companies use the same orange colour scheme and the specific font Cooper Black to indicate brand consistency. However, Easy Bathrooms’ logo features a prominent green swirl graphic above the company’s name, which is written in black and uses in a different font to EasyGroup’s.
In its defence, Easy Bathrooms has argued that it has never used EasyGroup’s signature orange and white colour scheme, and also cited the difference in font.
In EasyGroup’s original claim, the multi-sector business giant alleged that consumers may also take more notice of Easy Bathrooms because of mistakenly associating its name with the flight and hotel conglomerate’s brands.
Easy Bathrooms has also fought back against this aspect of the claim, arguing that the word “easy” simply indicates simplicity.
EasyGroup had reportedly asked the High Court for “substantial” damages from the retailer. It has also asked for formal declarations that Easy Bathrooms has infringed on its trademark, and has asked for an order banning the business from using its logo.
First founded in 1998, EasyGroup was established to expand the “easy” brand name following the commercial success of EasyJet, which was launched in 1995. The company is now said to have over 200 business ventures operating under the “easy” company name, which includes companies such as easyBus, easyCamera and easyPetfood.
The unrelated bathroom retailer Easy Bathrooms is owned by parent company Cubico, and was launched in 2012. Since then, it has grown into a large bathroom retail chain, and has more than 100 stores around the country.
EasyGroup has a long and well-documented history of bringing legal challenges against other companies that use “easy” in their names and logos. In one notable recent example from earlier this year, a Leicestershire indie band was forced to change their name from “Easy Life” after a similar trademark case brought against them by EasyGroup. Easy Life reluctantly agreed, later telling the media that they could not afford to fight the case.
However, EasyGroup recently lost a copyright infringement case against charity platform easyfundraising, following a two-year legal battle also involving its use of the word “easy”. The judge in the case ruled: “There is no evidence that easyfundraising obtained any unfair advantage in the establishment of its business as a result of its use of the word ‘easy’.”
kbbreview has reached out to the legal representitives of both EasyGroup and Cubico for comment.