Easy Life have refuted EasyGroup’s suggestion that they are “brand thieves”, arguing that they came up with their name long before the conglomerate licensed the name of the online retailer EasyLife.
Easylife is an independent website and licenses its name from easyGroup for an annual fee. The easyJet owner has no financial interest in the business.
The group revealed yesterday (October 2) that they were being sued by easyJet and claimed the company was “forcing” them to change their name or they risked facing a costly legal battle.
In response, an EasyGroup spokesperson told NME: “Stelios and easyGroup founded and (now) own the right to the easy brand name.
“Other companies (including easyLife) pay annual royalties for its use as part of their business strategy. We cannot allow unauthorised third parties to simply use it free, gratis and for nothing. That would be very unfair.”
The company said in a separate statement: “With reference to the brand thief Mr Matravers and his fellow band members who have decided to use our brand, easyLife, without permission, we have a long established record of legally stopping thieves from using our brands and I am confident we will stop Mr Matravers.”
Now, the band has given an outline of their career on their social media in an effort to prove that they used their name long before EasyGroup applied for the trademark for EasyLife.
They claim in their version of events they played their first show at the Bodega in Nottingham in 2015 (adding “no one was there lol”), had released their first single ‘Pockets’ in 2017, signed to their label in 2018 and then released their debut album ‘Life’s A Beach’ in 2021. They say all of this took place before EasyGroup trademarked ‘EasyLife’ in August 2022.
— easy life (@easylife) October 3, 2023
“Sorry, who is the brand thief here?” they questioned.
NME has approached EasyGroup for comment.
In their original statement, the band insisted that “we’ve worked hard to establish our brand and i’m certain in no way have we ever affected their business”.
This isn’t the first time EasyGroup have sued other businesses for using names containing the word ‘easy’.
In 2018, the company took legal action against Netflix over its comedy series Easy, claiming its use of the name breached its European trademarks.
In response, Netflix said in a statement that “viewers can tell the difference between a show they watch and a plane they fly in”
In 2008, the Northampton-based restaurant easyCurry changed its name after being threatened with legal action.