Charity tech firm vows to fight Easygroup’s ‘bully’ trademark tactics
The boss of charity tech platform Easyfundraising has vowed to fight a trademark lawsuit filed by Easygroup, slamming the firm’s aggressive bullying tactics over the ‘easy’ brand.
Easyfundraising, which provides charities with the technology to carry out fundraising, is a small firm headquartered in Staffordshire employing over 80 staff.
Easygroup hit the company with a lawsuit in February 2022 claiming the company was committing “brand theft”.
But the company has said it will continue to fight the case and won’t cave in to their demands.
“We are very confident that we are going to win, but it will still cost us hundreds and thousands of pounds,” James Moir, Easyfundraising’s chief executive, told CityAM
Easyfundraising is one of over 50 UK companies that have been targeted by Easygroup, commanded by boss Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, as part of its controversial trademark crusade.
“This bully sat at the top of the Easygroup has an opinion that he owns the word easy,” said Moir, adding that the firm’s legal trademark war is “fundamentally wrong”.
But Haji-Ioannou continues to defend Easygroup’s actions.
“My general view is that brand theft is profitable for the brand thief that is why it occurs a lot. It is not innocent use,” Haji-Ioannou told CityAM
“It is a back handed compliment to the strength of our easy brand that so many people are trying to use it to make a profit, albeit without our permission,” he added.
One of the Easygroup trademark cases at the moment is its case against Whitbread-owned Premier Inn.
Easygroup accused Premier Inn of infringing on its trademark during its ‘rest easy’ campaign which was launched in April 2021. Premier Inn defence is that it didn’t need to ask for Easygroup consent as it is “legally entitled to do”.
Easygroup lost its 20-year battle with IWG (formerly Regus), led by Mark Dixon, over the ‘Easyoffices’ brand.
During the case, High Court judge Justice Bacon previously found Haji-Ioannou to be a “deeply unimpressive witness” concluding that she could place “very little weight on his evidence”.
Last month, the Court of Appeal upheld Judge Bacon’s ruling that Easygroup had failed to prove genuine use of any of the trademarks by IWG.
In a statement following the decision, Haji-Ioannou said: “We are disappointed that the Court of Appeal found that Mr Dixon’s Regus is not infringing our marks with its use of www.easyoffices.com in what is essentially a ‘live and let live’ decision.”