Want Your Drive Cleaning? Don’t Phone An Holiday Airline By Mistake.

[Gromit]

A jetwashing company in Stoke, that specialises in cleaning patios and drives has paid substantial damages because the company name would confuse customers.

EasyJetWashing has had to drop its name and pay EasyGroup after being sued by Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Madness.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/22/easy-jetwash-owner-pay-out-trademark-row-easygroup

[Old_Geezer]

"Saying they did not have enough money to fight easyGroup in court."

 

There is the crux. Because it's so easy ® © to mistake one easy ® © company for another.

[naomi24]

I can't say I've much sympathy for them.

[Gromit]

Easy is a word that has been in existance for at least 900 years.   

How did this very rich Greek man come to own it ?

[Old_Geezer]

Admittedly adding "jet" to the name was rather "on the nose".

[naomi24]

Come on, gromit.  You have to suspect that they were trying to hitch a free ride.

[Gromit]

It was a pun. A joke name. An amusement.

No one is ever going to confuse it with the airline branding. There were many instances of Easy in a name before the Greek tycoon somehow aquired it.

[barry1010]

EasyJet forced a pop group called Easy Life to cha Ng ev

[Gromit]

Perhaps Columbia Pictures sold the word Easy to Mr Stelios.

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8o52KCrYB1fXgEjxxpEwd1TH6X.jpg

[barry1010]

EasyJet forced a pop group called Easy Life to change their name.  Unfortunately it didn't get to court so we will never know if he would be have succeeded.

'Easy life' is a common expression and I would never have it associated the pop group with EasyJet

[nailedit]

Dont know why this posts headline made me laugh so much 😂

[ToraToraTora]

gromit is correct, no one can own a word like "easy" even as a prefix. You have to be some sort of a wally to think Easyjetwash is in some way connected to Easyjet. Madness!

[Canary42]

When the Southern Electricity Board was privatised, they ended up making a substantial payout to a shop in Portsmouth whose name they unwittingly copied.  Ironically, although their HO was in Maidenhead, their IT Centre and their Customer Service Centre were both only a few miles outside Portsmouth.  If only they'd talked to the staff 😀  😁  😄

[Old_Geezer]

Might be a sideline. A wash service from Easyjet for those unable or unwilling to wash themselves.

[Hymie]

IMHO if this had gone to court, I would expect Easyjet wash to win based on the fact that they provide a completely different service (to Easyjet), and they have not in anyway copied their logo/colours.

 

Who could reasonably confuse the two, or think the jet wash company was a subsidiary of/or connected with Easyjet (not using their logo/colours)?

 

Maybe someone with relevant legal knowledge will give an authoritative answer.

[douglas9401]

This just in, they've renamed themselves JetToo. 😆

[barry1010]

When a company is registered at Companies House the name is protected and nobody else can use a name that is 'too like'.

That doesn't apply to sole traders, they have very little protection as their 'trading as' names aren't registered.

A name can be too like if it only almost identical in colour, font, and wording with minor changes to one or two characters;

it sounds the same eg 'fat fryers' and 'phat friars';

it deceives the public in to believing there is a legitimate connection between the registered company and the sole trader, eg EasyJet and EasyJet Two.

There has been many examples over the years of big companies bullying sole traders and small businesses.  I recall Chanel challenging a hairdressing salon becauce they called their business No. 5   Chanel lost that one because the salon just happened be at No. 5 Ican'tremember Street

[Canary42]

There's a long-established takeaway in Portsmouth which is called Kens Fried Chicken and when I first encountered it some time ago the shop front was in KFC colours/font.  I now see from Google Street View it has been completely changed, I wonder if the Colonel objected.

[douglas9401]

Burger King in Western Australia is known as Hungry Jack's because the local, independent Burger King was there first with the trademark.

[jno]

they were trying it on. The word easy has been round for centuries, and they're not the only people who can use it - for instance, they lost a case against Easylife

https://www.stevenmather.co.uk/litigation-solicitor-blog/1558/

The word easyjet, however, is all theirs. If I heard the term Easyjetwash, my first reaction would be to think it was one of Stelios's; and it's ten to one exactly the same thought occurred to them.

[youngmafbog]

Well easy may have been around but come on Easyjet is clearly the one orange company. 

All I wonder is if they went in heavy handed rather than a solicitor request to stop or whether they did and he refused.

The problems these days is that using a name like easyjetwash will help on seach engines, and of course by association.  I bet no one can really claim that just hearing easyjetwash theyn didnt think of Easyjet.