Netflix is being sued by EasyGroup founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou over its comedy series Easy, which features Orlando Bloom, Zazie Beetz, Emily Ratajkowski and Dave Franco.
Billionaire Haji-Ioannou told the Guardian: “When Joe Swanberg came up with the name ‘easy’ for his new TV series a couple of years ago they should have checked with their European lawyers before using it.
“We own the European trademark in the word easy and another thousand trademarks with easy as a prefix and we can’t allow people to use it now as a brand name, especially when they are doing it mostly with our colours and font.”
A Netflix spokesperson has now told media: “We’re looking into it but think viewers can tell the difference between a show they watch and a plane they fly.”
“I think this is a case of typically arrogant behaviour by a very large American tech company who never bothered to check what legal rights other companies have outside the US. When Joe Swanberg came up with the name “easy” for his new TV series a couple of years ago they should have checked with their European lawyers before using it.
“We own the European trademark in the word “easy” and another one thousand trademarks with easy as a prefix and we can’t allow people to use it now as a brand name, especially when they are doing it mostly with our colours and font. At least I am pleased that Netflix have said that they will stop at series three anyway. However we have to stop them from promoting the older series in Europe for online streaming.”
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