Easy-off.com escapes violation

Our previous correspondence on good old Stelios Haji-Ioannou and the 'easy' domain name malarkey provoked further email traffic.

First up we have Pat O'Shea, who'd like to set the record straight about his mate Stel:

I have recently had business dealing with Stelios, and EasyGroup and our efforts in producing a new air travel business product have, I think, been fruitful for both parties concerned. During my negotiations and discussions with Stelios, it emerged that a domain name "easytransfer.co.uk" was registered in my name, and Stelios and his staff never bullied me into tranfering the ownership to his group, but as any clever business man would, he opted for the amicable agreement between the two parties. Ironically, I had registered the name from the service "easyspace.com".

Fair enough. There is, mercifully, one url that Stelios has missed. David Lambert explains:

I've been following the story about the "Easy" domain names, and I thought to myself "Hey, what about the popular oven cleaner product?". So, I went and typed in the URL for "http://www.easyoff.com/", and found myself at the site of "Easy-Off The Fun Undie"!

It goes on to tell you this:
"Easy-Offs is the breakaway brief for gents and ladies!
Easy-Offs are fun for lovers. When the heat hits, you're simply a quick tug away from...well, you know what you're a quick tug away from!

Simply constructed of soft, durable cotton, yet delicately accented, easy offs look good and feel good!
Easy-Offs are simply made, simply donned, and simply quick to remove!
We guarantee it!"

So, I can see that Easyjet might have an, ahem, easy time of scarfing up domain names. Heck, even a tried-and-true, been-around-forever brand name like Easy-Off doesn't seem to be able to protect their trademark on-line!

So basically the whole thing's a complete rip-off. Yes, it all makes perfect sense.

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