The parent company of the airline easyJet has filed legal action against the retailer Easy Bathrooms, alleging that the company is liable for trademark infringement over its use of the word “easy”.
EasyGroup filed its claim against Easy Bathrooms last month. The claim alleges that Easy Bathrooms is illegally trying to benefit from EasyGroup’s intellectual property through its name.
According to legal news source Law360, EasyGroup has accused Easy Bathrooms of trying to “pass off” its trademark, and argues it should be banned entirely from using the word “easy” in its business name and 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 KBB retailer Easy Bathrooms is owned by parent company Cubico, and was launched in Leeds in 2012. Since then, it has grown into a large bathroom retail chain, and has more than 100 stores around the country.
Law360 has also reported that even though Easy Bathrooms’ services as a bathroom retailer are “dissimilar” to those of some its brands, EasyGroup still believes customers will create a cognitive link between the bathroom retailer and EasyGroup. The claim alleges that this would be “detrimental” to the conglomerate’s reputation.
It has also been reported that EasyGroup has 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.
EasyGroup has become notorious for legally challenging businesses across any sector that use the word “easy” in their names. According to The Guardian, as far back as 2001, EasyGroup chairman, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, vowed: “We will sue if someone comes along and starts a new business with ‘easy’ in the name. We believe, with the exception of a few legitimate sites started a long time ago, that anybody who tries to use the prefix ‘easy’ on the net is doing it in bad faith.”
In one notable recent example, 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. The band now goes by the name “Hard Life”, and told the BBC that the legal battle with EasyGroup would have been too expensive to fight.
Cases of EasyGroup brand confusion apparently happen with such regularity that the company has a specific news area on its website to report on those it refers to as “brand thieves”.
The website advises customers to notify the company if they are aware of any other businesses “trying to piggyback off [their] brand in any way”, saying: “Some people think they can make a fast buck by stealing our name and our reputation. They set up websites and companies using the name ‘easy‘ (or phonetic versions of it) which can either pay a passing resemblance to an easyGroup company or be a direct copy.”
kbbreview has reached out to both EasyGroup and Easy Bathrooms for comment.
