Fighting Over The Word Easy And The Color Orange

from the it-all-depends-on-how-you-look-at-it... dept

Last year, when UK conglomerate easyGroup first announced their plans to launch a mobile service under the name easyMobile, mobile carrier Orange threatened to sue over easyGroup's use of the color Orange in relation to a mobile service. Of course, every easyGroup company uses the same orange color, so it was a natural fit. While that legal battle continues, it appears that easyGroup is on the other side of a similar legal battle -- though, it doesn't appear to recognize the irony. It's suing another company who's been using the "easymobile" name for a few years (since before easyGroup decided to get into the mobile business). EasyGroup, of course, claims that they have the trademark on businesses with the "easy" name, even if those other businesses were around before they were. To make this story even more fun, the angry folks at easymobile (no capital M) have started running ads for Orange's mobile service on their website. So, now, easyGroup is complaining that (yup, you guessed it), easymobile is using the color orange on their website. If that's the case, it would seem to undermine their argument against Orange that the color isn't protected. Of course, while easyGroup does have a valid point that this could cause confusion, isn't it their fault for choosing a name that was already in use?

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