Stelios takes on Mr Blobby

ONE is an entrepreneur who brought us the bright pink and very popular Mr Blobby. The other is an entrepreneur who brought us the bright orange and very popular budget airline easyJet.

Noel Edmonds and Stelios Haji-Ioannou should get on famously as they swap colour tips. Instead the two celebrity businessmen are locked in a legal row over using the word 'easy' in Edmonds' new venture - a video conferencing network that he wants to promote with the slogan 'Easy Meetings'.

Haji-Ioannou has accused Edmonds of 'bad faith' and unleashed his lawyers on the one-time TV star's company.

Edmonds has described Haji-Ioannou as giving him 'a Greek headache', while the chief executive of Edmonds' company accused Haji-Ioannou of being 'rude and bombastic'.

The row stems from Edmonds' video conferencing business, Face2Face Meetings, one of a raft of companies owned by his Unique Group.

Face2Face is setting up 200 meeting rooms across the UK with video conferencing facilities. The idea is that executives can hold meetings without travelling, but also without having to buy video conferencing equipment of their own. All they have to do is visit a local Face2Face office. According to Edmonds, his company has invested £5m and is spending a further £2m on launching the latest service.

Last year, Edmonds' company attempted to register the slogan Easy Meetings with the Trademark Office. But it was opposed by Haji-Ioannou's Easy Group.

Edmonds said: 'We launched in June. We have 52 sites operational and we will have 200 by the end of the year. I thought what Haji-Ioannou did with easyJet was fantastic, I am a big fan, but now I am baffled as to why he is picking on me.'

Edmonds, who is enjoying a temporary return to being a DJ with a teatime slot on Radio 2, is reportedly worth £70m. Haji-Ioannou's personal wealth is estimated at almost £400m. A spokesman for Edmonds said: 'Noel is the little guy in this.'

But Haji-Ioannou has revealed that Edmonds came to him and asked if he could use the Easy name. 'On October 10, 2002, I had a meeting with Noel Edmonds in Camden (Haji-Ioannou's HQ). 'He approached me and asked to give him a licence to use the easy name and for some money to invest in the business. I said 'maybe'. Two days later he filed his trademark for Easy Meetings. I think that is bad faith.'

Paul Pascoe, chief executive of Unique Group, confirmed that the meeting took place and admitted the trademark filing was made 48 hours later. But he said Haji-Ioannou had been entirely negative during the meeting: 'No way did he say maybe. He was rude and bombastic. We wanted to talk about how we could work together, but we just could not get into a dialogue.'

Pascoe denied that Edmonds asking Haji-Ioannou about a deal had undermined his trademark registration bid. 'There are no grounds for confusion, but involvement from Haji-Ioannou and Easy Group would have been excellent,' he said.

The row with Edmonds is the latest in a series of trademark battles Haji-Ioannou has launched over the easy name. He has set his lawyers, Page White & Farrer, on to a range of businesses from car hire companies to recruitment firms. But one judge has decreed that his company cannot claim automatic right over the word 'easy' wherever it is used. Edmonds shares this view: 'It's a bit ironic that a foreign national is trying to trademark a word in the English language.'

Unique has had to pay lawyers £10,000 in advance to cover potential costs of the trademark case. Edmonds added: 'Our upfront risk in this business is very significant, which is why this Greek headache is causing us such angst. It's a complete distraction and may be a serious business obstacle.'

THE Post Office is teaming up with Haji-Ioannou to transform old-fashioned branches into state-oftheart cybercafes.

The first two easyInternetcafes complete with Post Office counters will open in north London this month. If successful, the scheme will be extended countrywide.

The 17,500-strong Post Office network was dealt a crippling blow in April when the Government started its two-year plan to scrap benefits books and encourage payments to be made directly into bank and building society accounts.

Benefits payments account for about 40% of a Post Office's revenue.

A spokeswoman for the Post Office said: 'We are keen to explore new ways of bringing in customers because the changes to the benefits payments scheme mean that branches must now find other ways of generating revenue.'

The internet venture is just one of a wave of new ideas being introduced by the Post Office in an attempt to make branches profitable. It will be offering own-brand personal loans from October, followed by Post Office branded credit cards, savings accounts, motor and life insurance. It is also providing Post Office card accounts for people who still want benefits paid over the counter.

Haji-Ioannou has lost £98m on easyInternetcafe in the past four years. The Post Office network is losing about £200m a year.