EasyGroup continues bizarre, time-travelling domain crusade

easyGroup is at it again. Despite having been told repeatedly that it does not own everything that includes the word "easy," the budget company took the owner of the domain 'easygroup.com' to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arguing that it violated its trademark. The domain was registered by a company …

[Cliff]

easyPeasy

Lemon Squeezy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite having been told repeatedly that it does not own everything that includes the word "easy,"

Quite possibly owns one of my ex's tho

[Lynrd]

Despite having been told repeatedly that it does not own everything that includes the word "easy,"

Actually, that's a rental

[Richard Jones 1]

Sleazy Grope

Oh dear, is it too late to register Sleasy Grope, or for that matter Sleasy Grasper?

[g e]

Re: Sleazy Grope

That greasy bloody Stelios...

[Destroy All Monsters]

As time goes by.

Maybe easis will get rid of this problem. They must be good for something.

Incredibly a single WIPO panelist actually agreed with this creative interpretation of trademark law over the domain 'easytrain.com'.

Cages. Fire.

[Anonymous Coward]

And the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet ?

Can we assume that the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet will be sacked from the panel for not meeting the intelligence requirement ?

What ? There isn't one ?!

[Rampant Spaniel]

Re: And the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet ?

Jane Lambert of NIPC? Iirc she's actually a barrister (not barista as her actions would suggest). Sadly she is entrenched and unlikely to go anywhere soon. This is just typical attention seeking behavior.

[Oninoshiko]

Re: And the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet ?

I'm still thinking she just misspelled barista when putting together her CV.

[Rampant Spaniel]

Re: And the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet ?

Or perhaps banister?

[Alan Brown]

Re: And the idiot woman who favoured Easyjet ?

One might think to run some enquiries as to who her clients might be.

I sense a conflict of interest. Not that a barrister would do that of course. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[Paul Herber]

I've just registered the domain name

easydomainhijacking.co.uk

[Jason 24]

Please set up a kickstarter when he comes at you, I'll chuck a few bob in!

[g e]

Blimey!!!

Sir, you shit us not!

:oD

[Dazed and Confused]

Now that the Hong Kong company have demonstrated that they have a prior claim on the usage of the word "Easy" and they have evidence of possible confusion over the names, Easy UK's submission must count as evidence, they should turn the tables and demand that the UK companies domain names are handed over to them.

[GreggS]

That's why I'm Easy.

Easy like Sunday morning. So much that they'll probably want to hijack sundaymorning.whatever next and claim it's synonymous with their trademark.

[Warm Braw]

easyThere

Apart from the money easyGroup make from licensing the name "easyJet" to the airline company, do they actually have much significant business to protect these days?

It all sounds a bit Norma Desmond.

[Anonymous Coward]

looks like easy.money is available for preorder ...

[JASR]

I had a working customer relationship with a company that was called Easy-'Word'.

They had nothing to do with Easyjet, (or at the time any 'Easy' associated businesses), their logo was completely different (no orange, was black/white/red, totally different font).

They had been going for about 5 years with that name (inclduign a small website), and were starting to expand.It's only when they ramped up their online presence, that Easy group's lawyers came calling... coincidentally as Easy Group moved into the same business area as this company...

Upshot, big company lawyers force small business to change name after various legal moves (and finanical muscle) were employed.

Same old, same old: Big Money beats small money.

[VinceH]

"The company then went to the law courts, where it was told again that it did not have the rights to the word "easy"."

Someone should point this out to Peter Jones, who seems to think Apple have the right to the 'i' prefix. He and easyGroup would be a marriage made in heaven.

[Anonymous Coward]

iEasy domains anyone....?

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw that episode and while I don't agree with him, he does have a point.

When Apple sic their lawyers on someone, you'd better have BIG pockets. Being in the right won't stop you losing every penny you have trying to prove it. How many people have caved in to Apple's or Microsoft's patent claims rather than rack up exhorbitant lawyers fees?

[Alan Brown]

"Someone should point this out to Peter Jones"

I reviewed a piece of crap called the iPhone back in (I think) 1996 - the distributor was trying to convince ISPs to sell the things.

It was like a crappier version of the Sinclair E-m@iler and required a dedicated Solaris box running a proprietary package costing a shade under £10,000.

The distributors were upset that I called it a cheap and nasty, barely useable toy. At the time one of the local universities was running the software on a test box running in a lab somewhere

I was mildly amused to see it pop up in Dick Smith stores (kind of like Maplins), selling for about £100.

A few years later I was even more amused to discover that the university had rediscovered the test box sitting in the corner of a lab and retired it, resulting in every single iPhone in the country ceasing to operate. Yup - the distributor hadn't bothered to set up a real server.

Dick Smith was forced to 100% refund every customer who'd bought one of the devices. I gather they were less than amused.

Back on topic: Apple were forced to buy pre-existing the iPhone trademark in a number of countries in order to sell their own tat. Arguments that the iPhone was cashing in on iMac name fell flat on their face when it was pointed out it predated those devices.

[Christoph]

How bad do they have to be before they can be added to the official list of vexatious litigants?

[Lost in Cyberspace]

Easy...

How much is the domain worth? Is it cheaper to buy than litigate?

[paulf]

Perhaps we need to bait Easy's lawyers a bit

A quick search on some randomly picked terms indicated the following domains are (inexplicably) not registered:

EASYTWAT.COM

EASYGREEKMORON.COM

It would be interesting to see if Easy Group UK's lawyers come knocking for a bit of Streisand effect publicity if someone registers these.

[Paris - see first domain suggestion]

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Re: Perhaps we need to bait Easy's lawyers a bit

Would you like TWA coffee or TWA tea?

[g e]

Re: Perhaps we need to bait Easy's lawyers a bit

How about "Easy, Stelios, easy" dot com :o)

[Phil O'Sophical]

"The Panel Majority therefore finds this to be a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking"

And what effect does this decision have? Easygroup to pay all court costs on both sides? Easygroup to be fined for lying? Easygroup to laugh all the way to the next trial?

[Anonymous Coward]

EasyBully

I remember, many years ago writing an email to EasyGroup's "IP" department telling them how much I disapproved of their bullying tactics, including taking to court companies that had had "Easy" in their name for decades. I told them that the effect this would have would be to make me simply avoid all EasyGroup's goods and services.

I received a reply, supposedly from Stelios himself, stating something along the lines of "I don't wish to appear clever, but in a world without intellectual property, how would you know which companies to boycott?"

That's OK Stelios, you didn't sound clever, since you completely missed the point.

[Zap]

Really all this bullying does is damage the EASYjet and other EASYgroup brands, I do not like being bullied and I do not like bullies.

I own hundreds of domains (used to own thousands and traded them) and people have to pay if they want a brand, BUT Easygroup should just go rebrand something unique, e.g. EeezyJet, i.e. a word that does not exist.

Really has damaged their reputation for me for even trying this nonsense.

IDIOTS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats exactly it, NO company should be able to lock out the use of a common language word like that.

Another one here that wont use any easy group product or service purely because of this behaviour.

[g e]

Windows

Didn't MS get told to take a running jump cos Windows was a common English language word ?

[Colin Miller]

Easy Solution

EasyGroup (HK) files a counter-suite against EasyGroup (UK) in the WIPO, and is given the rights to all Easy™ marks and domains, as they [EasyGroup (HK)] have prior rights.

[phy445]

If memory serves Chipzilla used send their cold blooded bottom feeders out to get anybody who tried to market anything with a vaguely Latinate name on the grounds that it might be confused with Pentium. Happy days!