We are back again with your daily dose of internet stories of interesting domain name disputes, trademark infringement issues, and all the other cases that challenge the notion of the phrase ‘what’s in a name’! Today we have a case surrounding the usage of the term EASYOFFICE, and trust me it was anything but easy.
The Complainant was the founder of a popular airline company easyJet in Greece. The Complainant claimed that he had the trademark rights of the term EASYOFFICE which was being used by a firm named Nuclei. The Complainant argued that they have been using the term easy in a range of products and services. The term has been in use because of the easyOffice platform launched by the Complainant.
The Respondent was represented by IWG, of which Nuclei is a subsidiary. The owners of both the groups were friends before and the Complainant had presented the idea of easyOffice to the owner of IWG. However instead of launching it with the easyOffice he went on with Nuclei. A domain name easyOffices.com was acquired by them in 2000.
Steps to launch easyOffice as a business by the Complainant began in 2006. Initially it was successful however after some time it started to fall and the company was dissolved in 2014.
The Court decided that although the Complainant holds the trademark rights, there is not active use of the trademark. There was no evidence of people confusing the one over the other because of the similarities between the two. The Court in fact even went on to claim the Complainant’s defense ‘implausible’.
The Court decided that Respondent didn’t infringe the trademark rights of the Complainant.
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