CA-2024-00277 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1000

The Defendants accept that they have used the Defendants’ Signs (other than @easyuk) in relation to services identical to the “advertising and marketing services” for which the Easylife Word Mark is registered.

The judge assessed the similarity of the Signs with the Easylife Word Mark (and other marks relied upon by easyGroup) at [252]:

“There is some similarity of the 2022 EF Sign and the marks owing to use of the word ‘easy’ and the use of it as a prefix to a word describing the nature of the business, but otherwise no visual, aural or conceptual similarity between the marks and the Sign. In overall terms, the degree of similarity is low.  The position is the same in relation to the simple word Signs EASYFUNDRAISING and EASYSEARCH and the second easylife mark: the similarity is limited to the word ‘easy’, which is not strongly distinctive; ‘easylife’ is conceptually distinct; and there is therefore only a low level of similarity in terms of global appreciation.”

Despite the Defendants’ concession of identity in relation to “advertising and marketing services”, there was an issue as to similarity with respect to retail services. The judge’s assessment at [257] was:

“A secondary question arises in connection with the second easylife mark, as regards the on-line and mail order retail services that are part of its specification. EFL and easylife both provide services in connection with retail, namely a bringing together of products made or sold by other retailers; but there is also an important difference, namely that EFL provides a portal that a supporter can use to pass through (for a particular purpose) to buy products from other retailers. Easylife provides a website from which various products, including ones made by third parties, can be purchased directly from it. There is therefore some similarity but only at a fairly high level, in that both are providing services in connection with online retail.”

The judge held that there was no likelihood of confusion for the following reasons:

“258.

I do not, however, consider that there is any risk of the average consumer confusing Easylife with easyfundraising, as the 2022 EF Sign, the plain word Sign and the second easylife mark only have limited similarity (the presence of the prefix ‘easy’), and there is only high level similarity in the retail services provided. Any user or intending user of the easyfundraising or easysearch site would be there for a specific reason, which is a service that only those sites provide. At the relevant date, Easylife advertised on easyfundraising’s platform, so it was evident on the platform that Easylife was something different.

259.

As for indirect confusion, the presence of the word "easy" itself is not sufficient (in view of the substantial number of other users of that word) to lead an average consumer to think that easyfundraising or easysearch must be connected with Easylife, absent some additional common factor. The specific service that easyfundraising was providing, albeit in a retail context, was so different in substance from what Easylife offered that the average consumer would not have been likely to be confused about their origins or common ownership, though the retail context might have brought Easylife to mind. The difference from easysearch is also marked.

260.

The issue of possible confusion in 2022 is therefore restricted to EFL’s provision of advertising and marketing services to its retailers or advertisers. The average consumer of the advertising and marketing services can be assumed to be sophisticated and careful. Indeed, in all but two cases, the services were provided to professional intermediaries acting on behalf of the retailers, the two exceptions being Amazon and eBay. There was no evidence about those who advertised on easysearch. The advertising clients would all have been aware of the nature of the business operation of EFL. They would likely have been aware of its having been carried on for a long time.

261.

The risk of confusion alleged is the risk that the average consumer might be confused as to whether easyfundraising (or presumably easysearch, though little was said about it) was another easy+ brand, or connected to the brands. Given the nature of the average consumer in relation to these services, there was no real risk of that confusion. Indeed, the family of brands relied on by the Claimant in support of its argument (and which I accept existed) militates against any such confusion, because the family of brands use the very distinctive white and orange get up. This was a requirement of the easy+ brands guidance, which Mr Anderson said was to be adhered to without exceptions, save where, e.g. planning constraints prevented the use of orange on shop fronts, or the cleaning product containers only accommodated an orange band rather than being completely white and orange. Whatever an uninformed member of the public might have thought, there was no risk of a sophisticated professional (or Amazon or eBay) being confused as to whether this relatively longstanding business was one of the easy+ companies or associated with them.

262.

Unsurprisingly, there was no evidence of any confusion by advertisers, despite easyfundraising having been in operation since 2005 and easysearch since 2007, and despite the very extensive searches. If any sophisticated user acting as an intermediary was mistaken about the ownership or control of EFL, it is more likely than not that that mistake would have come to light in time, either by the professional in question realising their mistake or as a result of the content of communications between the professional and either EFL or easyGroup. The small size of the EFL operation in its early years, which was no longer the case by 2015, does not undermine that conclusion.”