EasyJet founder makes life hard for ‘brand thieves’

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Daring to prefix a company or even a pop group’s name with “easy” could land you with legal action, as the founder of British airline easyJet relentlessly tackles alleged trademark breaches.

Greek-Cypriot tycoon Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose easyGroup still has links with the carrier, has set out to protect the “easy” brand by threatening court action against anyone deemed to be profiting from the name.

A formal complaint made by the man simply known as Stelios recently forced British indie pop band Easy Life, which also adorned posters with an aircraft showing a likeness to an easyJet plane, into changing its name. It chose Hard Life.

“The problem with small brand thieves if they are left unchecked is that they become profitable and they grow,” an easyGroup spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in relation to numerous ongoing lawsuits.

“Most of these cases never come to open court as the brand thieves realise that they are in the wrong and make changes to the satisfaction of easyGroup,” he added.

Hard Life still gives a nod to its past, with the band’s account on X carrying the title message “easy come, easy go.”

Ahead of releasing a new song in June it wrote on the social platform: “Safe to say the last nine months haven’t been easy.”

EasyGroup and Stelios, who lives in Monaco, insist that their actions are in the interest of the consumer, to avoid confusion and preserve the company’s image.

The spokesperson added that “most of easyGroup’s profits” go into the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation.

The easyGroup model sees it receive royalties from licensing its brand to third parties. It receives, for example, 0.25 percent of easyJet’s revenue, while the Haji-Ioannou family still owns 15 percent of the carrier.

Around 1,200 official “easy” brands exist, from gambling business easyBet to easyGym, easyHotel and dating site easyWoo — many of which exhibit the same typeface and orange/white color scheme.

Unofficial “easy” companies contacted by AFP cited colossal legal fees as the reason for backing down and changing their names when pursued by easyGroup.

“As a small business it was incredibly hard to keep up financially with solicitor fees so for me I am happy to leave this behind me,” said Jozsef Spekker, owner of Stoke Jetwash.

The driveway-cleaning business was known as Easy Jetwash until August.