EasyJetwash owner agrees to pay out in trademark row

A pressure washing company will have to change its name from EasyJetwash and pay damages after a trademark dispute with the group behind the easyJet brand.

EasyGroup said the jetwash company’s founder, Jozsef Spekker, had agreed to pay “significant damages and legal costs without having to go to a full trial in court”.

The business, which is based in Newcastle-under-Lyme and specialises in cleaning patios and driveways, will be rebranded as Stoke Jetwash.

EasyGroup is owned by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded easyJet and built it into Britain’s biggest budget airline. He stepped down from easyJet’s board in 2010 but his family remains a 15% shareholder, and easyGroup earns most of its income from licensing the brand to the airline.

EasyJet is just the tip of the easy empire. The group’s website lists its “100 most active” easy brands, ranging from dogwalking to gyms, and online dating to hemp oil – complete with a cannabis leaf on the familiar orange logo.

Haji-Ioannou has rigorously defended the easy brand in repeated legal tussles. He said in an interview this year that he spends “a ninth” of his time in trademark disputes, and that he has a duty to protect consumers.

The British pop group Easy Life changed their name last year, saying they did not have enough money to fight easyGroup in court . Yet not every battle is successful: this year a UK court ruled that a cosmetics brand selling to German and Austrian consumers could keep the name Easycosmetic.

Of the EasyJetwash settlement, Haji-Ioannou said: “I believe this is a good outcome for both sides and the rule of law was upheld, and the consumer was protected from confusion.

“In return for Mr Spekker agreeing to pay damages and legal costs to us we have agreed to generously give Mr Spekker a phasing-out period of 18 months to educate his customers about his new name.”

Spekker said he was “actually thankful for Sir Stelios for the 18-month period as I will have a good period of time to educate my customers”.

He added: “I would like to focus on the future and secure StokeJetwash.co.uk as a well-established small business. I am very proud of everything that I have achieved through hard work. I came to the UK on 5 November 2012. Twelve years ago, I didn’t speak the language and became a dishwasher in a restaurant in London. Today, I run my own business and am very proud to be a British citizen.”

He declined to say how much he had paid easyGroup.

Easy Jetwash did not use the easyGroup orange – Pantone 021C – in its branding, but Haji-Ioannou said that it was deliberately using easyJet’s name.

“Mr Spekker deliberately set out to profit from the reputation of easyJet, the world-famous airline, by using the exact word in his domain. Adding another word after a famous brand does not allow you to take advantage of the goodwill associated with that brand.”