British court rules in favour of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou vs ‘brand thief’
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Easy LiveAuction’s founder was ordered to pay damages to easyGroup’s founder.
Another victory for Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The creator of easyGroup and Monegasque resident is waging a veritable war against brands that use the ‘easy’ name without permission.
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It is a complex, ongoing fight against ‘brand thieves’, but the Group’s press release announced a legal victory over Achilleas Achilleous, trading under the name Easy LiveAuction, an online auction website.
Achilleous was ordered, by the Court of Appeal of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, to pay easyGroup £180,000 (approximately € 207,000) to cover legal costs. The Court of Appeal had already ordered Achilleas Achilleous to pay £28,000 (€32,000) in damages for brand infringement.
The court found Easy Live Auction guilty of infringing easyGroup’s intellectual property rights because of a logo that would “mislead the public” into thinking the two businesses are connected. The Court of Appeal also found that the alleged charges against Easy Live Auction “would significantly reduce [easyGroup’s] chances of attracting paying licensees, if an unlicensed competitor is permitted to take advantage of its goodwill without paying for that privilege.”
“Brand theft is profitable for brand thieves,” said Sir Stelios. “There will always be opportunists who want to trade off the back of the reputation of another business rather than invest to build their own. As easyGroup has extended the easy family of brands to as many as 100 different sub-brands, it is more likely that a brand thief will get away with confusing the consumer that they are a legitimate member of the easy brand family when they are not. (…) Our court victory proves that all we want, is to uphold the rule of law. We must protect consumers and the legitimate members of the easy family like easyJet.com, easyHotel.com, easyStorage.com and easyLife.co.uk and many others who use the ‘easy’ logo, under licence from easyGroup. It is the collective and exceptional efforts of the easy family members that have turned the easy brand into such a trusted institution.”