Stories

We are delighted to report that our clients Easyfundraising and Easy Live Auction have successfully defended trade mark infringement appeals brought by easyGroup in the Court of Appeal.

Following their High Court victories last year, both clients defended easyGroup’s attempts to overturn the decisions and prevent them from using their longstanding names, “Easyfundraising” and “Easy Live Auction”.  Both Court of Appeal decisions were released on the same date, and can be found here easyGroup Ltd v Easy Live (Services) Ltd & Ors [2025] EWCA Civ 946 (24 July 2025) and here easyGroup Ltd v easyfundraising Ltd & Ors [2025] EWCA Civ 1000 (24 July 2025). 

In both cases, our clients also succeeded in partially revoking easyGroup’s recently acquired “easylife” logo for non-use in relation to most advertising services – an important and interesting decision from a legal perspective. 

easyGroup’s infringement claim against Easyfundraising was entirely dismissed, with only minor success on appeal regarding some of our client’s revocation counterclaims.  For Easy Live Auction, the core of easyGroup’s claims was also dismissed, except for a limited finding that past use of the abbreviation “Easy Live” infringed easyGroup’s “Easylife” trade marks. 

The Court of Appeal has reaffirmed a fundamental principle: easyGroup does not hold a monopoly over the simple word “easy”.  That has now been further confirmed in the High Court’s recent decision in a separate matter, easyGroup v Premier Inn. 

The teams for both cases were led by David Hansel, with Will Holmes and Fabiana Atzeni, and a huge thank you to Head of Trade Marks Justine Flockhart.  The counsel teams were Emma Himsworth KC (One Essex Court) and Chris Aikens (11 South Square) for Easyfundraising, and Chris Aikens for Easy Live Auction.

With 20+ years of expertise in these matters, Hansel Henson is here to help.  Learn more on our easyDisputes webpage.