TAKEAWAY pizza firm boss Karl Khan has won a three-year legal battle with easyGroup founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.The Greek millionaire, who operates everything from internet cafés to airlines using his ‘easy’ brand, claimed trademark infringement against Mr Khan for naming his London business EasyPizza.
But Mr Khan, 39, stood firm, remortgaging his home and taking out loans to pay for his £135,000 defence, and now easyGroup has backed down. It has conceded that the father-of-two named his Crouch End firm in 1997 while it did not enter the business until 2004.
Mr Khan, who employs nine staff, said: ‘They used bully-boy tactics to frighten me into giving up the name. When I thought of the name I was thinking it sounded like ‘easy-peasy’ and we had one easy price for all our pizzas. Plus there are thousands of other businesses with easy in the name - they didn’t invent the word.’
EasyGroup first contacted Mr Khan in 2003 asking him to sell the name for £400 and then for £1,000 on condition that he stop using it.
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