The parent company of easyJet has lost a copyright infringement legal claim against fundraising platform easyfundraising.
In February 2022, easyGroup started legal proceedings against easyfundraising for having “easy” in its name, alleging that it was infringing intellectual property rights.
Last year, the High Court ruled in easyfundraising’s favour, after concluding that there was “no infringement of the claimant’s marks by the defendants nor any passing off”.
At the time, judge Fancourt dismissed easyGroup’s various claims for trade mark infringement, passing off and trade mark invalidity and revocation against easyfundraising and partly upheld counterclaims the latter made against the former.
EasyGroup appealed the judgment and this was heard in the Court of Appeal last month.
In their ruling, handed down on 24 July, justices Coulson, Arnold and Zacaroli said that the appeal had failed in relation to infringement but succeeded in certain respects with respect to revocation.
‘More persuasive arguments’
EasyGroup also challenged previous decisions regarding easyfundraising’s use of @easyuk as a social media handle, arguing that it could be confused with its website easy.com.
However, the ruling says that the judges found easyfundraising’s arguments “more persuasive”.
“EasyGroup’s strongest case is probably in relation to @easyuk, but on balance I conclude that the difference in the services and between the easy.com mark and the sign mean that there is no likelihood of confusion,” it reads.
“For completeness, I note that four of the instances of alleged confusion relied upon by easyGroup at trial concerned @easyuk, but even taken at their highest none of these suggested confusion with easy.com (as opposed to, at least in two cases, easyJet).
“The overall result is that, although the appeal succeeds in certain respects with respect to revocation, it fails in relation to infringement.”
EasyGroup plans further legal action
Welcoming the ruling, easyfundraising’s chief executive James Moir said: “Our decision to not back down against easyGroup’s ridiculous claims and bully-boy tactics was vindicated last year and was vindicated again today.
“This case has already taken up many months of management and business time that could have been far better spent on our core business of helping charities and good causes raise as much money as possible.
“We’ve never claimed to be part of easyGroup, and we hope that this judgement gives heart to others being sued by easyGroup that they can see them in court – and win.”
Moir added: “Essentially, this was a trademark case over the use of the word ‘easy’ in our name even though easyfundraising has existed for nearly 20 years.
“Our first brand registration was in 2012 and wasn’t opposed by easyGroup. We also have a word mark which was granted in May 2019.
“Our brand refresh in autumn 2022 was also designed with the utmost care to avoid any comparison or confusion with easyGroup.”
An easyGroup spokesperson said that the group is “considering whether a point of law, which would benefit all trademark owners, could be referred to the Supreme Court”.
They said the organisation is also about to start a second legal action in the High Court in Dublin, Ireland, against easyfundraising “in respect of their infringing use of easyGroup’s EU trademark registrations in the European Union”.
Meanwhile, easyGroup previously wrote to the Charity Commission to urge the regulator to intervene.
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