Howes Percival
Dispute over trade mark shows band that life isn’t always easy
Leicester-based band Easy Life, now rebranded as Hard Life, changed their name on June 11, 2024 following a legal dispute with easyGroup over trade mark infringement. easyGroup Ltd is the private investment vehicle of Sir Stelios Haji- Ioannou, the founder of the airline easyJet, the largest UK airline by the number of passengers carried. easyGroup has over 250 registered trade marks in the UK and is known for rigorously enforcing its intellectual property rights. Hard Life are an indie pop group formed in 2017. Both
their albums reached No.2 on the UK album chart, and they won the NME award for Best New British Act in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, Easy Life promoted their Life’s a Beach tour with a promotional poster, and the band also off ered T-shirts for sale.
Zara Khan Associate Solicitor Howes Percival
On October 3, 2023, Sir Stelios and easyGroup released
a statement highlighting their legal budget of £4m per year for taking action against brand thieves. T ey accused Murray Matravers, frontman of the band, of having ‘intentionally used easyGroup’s well known stylisation and images of easyJet planes in his marketing. Not only does this take unfair advantage of easyGroup’s brand but it can also damage it. For example, negative PR about Matravers (for example having to be carried off stage for being too drunk to perform), can refl ect badly on easyGroup.’ easyGroup’s claim against the band focused on their
use of the name Easy Life, their promotional poster and T-shirts. It cited several trade marks including EASYLIFE (which is registered in respect of 434 goods and services including CDs, clothing and musical instruments), EASYJET, EASYMUSIC and its trade mark for the livery of an easyJet aircraft. easyGroup relied on their ‘easy’ family of trade marks. It argued that since 1995 it has made extensive use within its business of names that commence with the name ‘easy’ followed by a word or words alluding to the key goods and/or services under that name, such as EASYBUS, EASYCLEANING, EASYFOOD and EASYCOURIER.
ALL THINGS BUSINESS | 10
CREATIVE MARKETING
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