A dad who runs a driveway cleaning business called EasyJetwash is being threatened with legal action by billionaire easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Jozsef Spekker, 43, charges around £100 to pressure wash people's drives, patios, garden paths and conservatories.
He has run his one-man business for three years but is now in hot water with easyGroup, which is owned by budget airline boss Sir Stelios.
The multinational venture capital conglomerate - worth billions - has written to Jozsef ordering him to rebrand his business or face a costly legal battle.
Jozsef, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs., said: “They explained how my branding was very harmful for their business.
“They wanted me to take all the branding off Facebook and social media, and close it
down.
“If I do what they want me to do I have to close the business. I’d have to start again.
“The first two years I spent a lot of money on advertisements.
“I have hundreds of videos on YouTube, a ten minute video takes a long time to edit. I have at least 160 videos. People like to watch them.
“It’s mainly the word easy which is the problem. I call myself EasyJetwash.
“If you go through most of my social posts I higher case Easy and Jet.
“I try and keep it obvious that we are nothing to do with easyJet.
“They are hanging on to the word ‘easy’, saying that I am trying to confuse their customers into believing I am part of their group.
“I look very, very different.
“All the business I do, they don’t offer.
“The whole idea of calling my business EasyJetwash is that I made hard physical work very easy with the right equipment and it is really simple and easy to do.
“They [easyJet) don’t offer any exterior cleaning or building restoration, which I do.
“Which is why my trademark was accepted. They didn’t challenge my trademark.
“I am totally scared. Who am I compared to a multi-billion pound corporation?
“Just a few weeks ago I paid off £800 on my credit card and I have no savings. I can’t fight them in the court.”
Jozsef applied to trademark his company name and was approved in April 2022.
The Hungarian-born business owner, who suffers from degenerative arthritis, says the stress has left him feeling “worried I’ll lose everything”.
He added: "My business is extremely different from anything that easyGroup offer for their customers.
"Not just the business but the appearance of the business as well, and the way EasyJetwash is displayed.
"When I registered as a trademark and got accepted I was 100 per cent sure I have every right over my business which is my only income.”
Jozsef says he is so worried about losing his business, he has set up a GoFundMe page to help him cover any legal bills.
He said: “I’m worried to lose everything to be honest. With the GoFundMe, maybe I have a way to fight it.
“I can’t afford someone to represent me. I’m just a bloke. Loads of people say that I can win this case.
“It’s not only ridiculous, but it’s heartless. If you have money, you can sue anyone. I’m pretty sure they’re going to be heavy handed.”
Sir Stelios has hit back, accusing Jozsef of being a "brand thief."
He said: "From my point of view I think Mr Spekker is one of the most calculating and profiteering brand thieves I have come across in the 30 years I have been doing this job.
"Not only he registered the domain easyjetwash.com which clearly contains the word easyJet but also he very cleverly performed search engine optimisation to come up very highly on google search engine results using the search term “easyjet wash” .
"So now Spekker is running a very profitable business by obtaining more and more customers who fall for the deliberate confusion he creates online.
"Don’t believe him that he has no money to hire a lawyer. His problem is that no lawyer will tell him that what he does is lawful.
"Whilst there are some people who argue that we don’t own a monopoly in the word easy ( which I disagree with ) but Spekker is the first person who has ever argued that we don’t own a monopoly in the word easyJet. We clearly own the word easyJet.
"We will win in court."
Jozsef Spekker, 43, charges around £100 to pressure wash people's drives, patios, garden paths and conservatories.
He has run his one-man business for three years but is now in hot water with easyGroup, which is owned by budget airline boss Sir Stelios.
The multinational venture capital conglomerate - worth billions - has written to Jozsef ordering him to rebrand his business or face a costly legal battle.
Jozsef, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs., said: “They explained how my branding was very harmful for their business.
“They wanted me to take all the branding off Facebook and social media, and close it
down.
“If I do what they want me to do I have to close the business. I’d have to start again.
“The first two years I spent a lot of money on advertisements.
“I have hundreds of videos on YouTube, a ten minute video takes a long time to edit. I have at least 160 videos. People like to watch them.
“It’s mainly the word easy which is the problem. I call myself EasyJetwash.
“If you go through most of my social posts I higher case Easy and Jet.
“I try and keep it obvious that we are nothing to do with easyJet.
“They are hanging on to the word ‘easy’, saying that I am trying to confuse their customers into believing I am part of their group.
“I look very, very different.
“All the business I do, they don’t offer.
“The whole idea of calling my business EasyJetwash is that I made hard physical work very easy with the right equipment and it is really simple and easy to do.
“They [easyJet) don’t offer any exterior cleaning or building restoration, which I do.
“Which is why my trademark was accepted. They didn’t challenge my trademark.
“I am totally scared. Who am I compared to a multi-billion pound corporation?
“Just a few weeks ago I paid off £800 on my credit card and I have no savings. I can’t fight them in the court.”
Jozsef applied to trademark his company name and was approved in April 2022.
The Hungarian-born business owner, who suffers from degenerative arthritis, says the stress has left him feeling “worried I’ll lose everything”.
He added: "My business is extremely different from anything that easyGroup offer for their customers.
"Not just the business but the appearance of the business as well, and the way EasyJetwash is displayed.
"When I registered as a trademark and got accepted I was 100 per cent sure I have every right over my business which is my only income.”
Jozsef says he is so worried about losing his business, he has set up a GoFundMe page to help him cover any legal bills.
He said: “I’m worried to lose everything to be honest. With the GoFundMe, maybe I have a way to fight it.
“I can’t afford someone to represent me. I’m just a bloke. Loads of people say that I can win this case.
“It’s not only ridiculous, but it’s heartless. If you have money, you can sue anyone. I’m pretty sure they’re going to be heavy handed.”
Sir Stelios has hit back, accusing Jozsef of being a "brand thief."
He said: "From my point of view I think Mr Spekker is one of the most calculating and profiteering brand thieves I have come across in the 30 years I have been doing this job.
"Not only he registered the domain easyjetwash.com which clearly contains the word easyJet but also he very cleverly performed search engine optimisation to come up very highly on google search engine results using the search term “easyjet wash” .
"So now Spekker is running a very profitable business by obtaining more and more customers who fall for the deliberate confusion he creates online.
"Don’t believe him that he has no money to hire a lawyer. His problem is that no lawyer will tell him that what he does is lawful.
"Whilst there are some people who argue that we don’t own a monopoly in the word easy ( which I disagree with ) but Spekker is the first person who has ever argued that we don’t own a monopoly in the word easyJet. We clearly own the word easyJet.
"We will win in court."
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FunTranscript
00:00 My name is Joseph Specker and I'm the owner of EZ Jetwash pressure washing service.
00:20 Last December I got challenged with this by EZ group and I received a demanding
00:28 letter to shut down my website, shut down my Facebook page, everything related
00:35 with EZ Jetwash and basically deleted, which was really firm and harsh.
00:46 I just got to the point, paid off all the credit cards and everything which helped me
00:58 to buy all the expensive equipment and startup process. I'm not sure how many
01:05 people are aware of it but it is really expensive to start up a business with a
01:09 strong website indexing on Google search because that's how people find me.
01:14 They don't know me. I'm Hungarian-British. I'm proud to be British but I'm from
01:22 Hungary. I have no family and friends who can recommend me with my business. I had
01:29 to recommend myself and I had to build up everything for myself.
01:40 In my world, in my view, I did no harm for EZ group or EZ Jet. I had no
01:47 intention to sell any kind of businesses they are doing jet washing.
01:55 I'm just the bloke down the road you call out for exterior cleaning. It's not
02:00 simple.
02:02 [sound of jet engine]
02:11 There is a big question what's coming, what's waiting for me. At the moment I
02:17 received a letter from High Court Justice. I need to answer on that letter.
02:22 I have less than eight days now because it was filed, ironically, on my birthday.
02:30 Probably a good birthday gift. And I need to respond on the claim that
02:38 EZ group has. They did not write any damage in numbers. They use the N/A
02:46 as damages. So at the moment if they win they probably can say that oh yeah
02:52 Joseph, the bloke from Stoke-on-Trent caused us 10 million pound of damage. He
02:57 has to pay.
03:00 [sound of jet engine]
03:10 Doesn't make me feel really good. I did offer them, I sent them an email before
03:18 this claim came. And basically I've been trying to explain for them this is what
03:25 I do for a living. This is my job. This is my only income what I can rely on. And I
03:33 did offer for them although I disagree with their view over my business. I
03:41 disagree with everything they trying to claim or accuse me. I'm still happy to
03:47 rather go down on a peaceful way because I know exactly they are a billion pound
03:53 company. I would like to say thank you for the news reporters and everybody
04:04 picking up my case because I really believe that and I truly believe that
04:12 EZ group is not an evil group and they not here to delete somebody. And I really
04:22 believe that they are able to make a solution without taking this case to the
04:30 High Court of Justice. And I truly believe that it will be a good solution
04:35 for everyone.
04:39 [sound of jet engine]
04:41 (car door slams)