Easy life: Band says easyJet owner suing over name

A band has said it is being forced to change its name by the owners of easyJet, who have started legal action against them.

Easy life said the airline's parent company easyGroup was suing them because its name was too similar.

The Leicester band said it was certain it had never affected the company's business.

EasyGroup said it would be "unfair" to let the band use the "easy" brand name without royalty payments.

In a statement on social media, easy life said the band was being sued because of the similarity of its name to the company.

"We've worked hard to establish our brand. I'm certain in no way have we ever affected their business," the band said.

"Although we find this whole situation hilarious, we are virtually powerless against such a massive corporation."

EasyGroup said other companies - including one of the UK's largest catalogue retailers, also called Easylife - paid for the use of its brand name.

A spokesperson added: "Stelios [Haji-Ioannou] and easyGroup founded and now own the right to the easy brand name.

"Other companies, including Easylife [the catalogue company], pay annual royalties for its use as part of their business strategy.

"We cannot allow others to simply use it free, gratis and for nothing. That would be unfair."

Leanne Hall, trademark specialist at Serjeants in Leicester, said easyGroup had a history of taking "a lot of action" to protect its brand.

"EasyGroup has done a lot of work around the word easy and building up their reputation of it," she told BBC Radio Leicester.

"It's one of those David vs Goliath fights which always gets the media interested because it's almost not fair that this is happening, but because of their reputation that does mean that they almost have some rights in just the word 'easy'.

"It doesn't mean they'll be successful, but they have the reputation to try and do it."

The easyGroup has previously taken legal action a number of companies over the use of the "easy" brand.

In 2018, The Guardian reported the company took legal action against Netflix over its comedy series Easy, claiming its use of the name breaches its European trademarks.