A Southfields businessman is battling to protect his livelihood and his company's name after budget specialist EasyGroup told him it owned the rights to easy'.

Sacha Visram founded Easy Electric, based in Putney, in 1999 and presented a business plan to EasyGroup in January this year.

However, he was told EasyGroup was not interested in his business, created to provide consumers with an easy way of buying discounted electronic goods.

Two months after the meeting, Mr Visram who has registered the domain names easyelectrical.com and easyelectrical.co.uk was bombarded with legal letters informing him his use of the word easy would lead people to assume it was linked to EasyGroup.

He claims he was offered a derisory' sum for the domain names and his company, which has been independently valued between £50,000 and £100,000.

The 31-year-old entrepreneur said EasyGroup was trying to use its financial muscle to beat him into submission.

He added: "Basically they're trying to claim they own the easy trademark or brand.

"They started bombarding me with legal letters saying I must hand over the name to them. It's impossible for anyone to own the descriptive word of the English language.

"They're just trying to stop other people from coming into the market. I left my job to get this company launched and I wasn't prepared to sell it for £100.

"They then told me they really want the company and offered me £500. They say they own the name easy by using it they said it became their intellectual property."

Mr Visram also said the group threatened to sue him for breach of contract.

He added: "I pointed out we didn't have a contract. I'm concerned they're trying to steal my concept. They're trying to scare people into thinking they own the word easy."

Mr Visram, who has lodged an opposition to EasyGroup's registration of the trademark, points out on his website that "easyelectrical.com is a wholly independent company that has no connection whatsoever with any other entity with easy' in its name or any other owned by or associated with Stelios Haji-Ioannou".

An EasyGroup spokesman denied the company had acted as a corporate bully'.

He said: "I believe the matter is now getting litigious. We've got a lot more to lose than him.

"If we did have a ruling against us that would damage our own intellectual property. We have our own case against him of passing off. We want to protect ourselves, we spend millions growing our product."

The case, which is now with the UK Patents Office, could take more than two years to process.

December 20, 2001 16:30