Stelios tops Sunday Times Rich List

Stelios Haji-Iannou, founder of EasyJet, is now the richest man in Britain, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

The ebuillent businessman has seen himself jump from number 68 to the top spot in just 12 months — a remarkable achievement — and can now claim to be richer than the Queen.

Stelios' success has come from offering low-cost models in a range of different markets and usurping market leaders who have use market control to force prices beyond their natural level.

However, the huge leap in his fortune has come almost entirely from his success at trademarking and copyrighting the word "easy". With impeccable logic, Mr Haji-Iannou successfully argued that since he now had five businesses that begin with "easy" and had spent millions developing the brand with its well-known orange colouration, he had a right to protect his business from people that attempting to ride on top of his hard work by using the word.

Originally, Stelios applied his God-given right by forcing owners of all websites with the word "easy" in to hand them over to him or risk spending £50,000 in a High Court battle that he would lose. He then moved into the equally wrong "easi" and "ez" website arena, threatening everyone that couldn't afford to go to court with court.

However, the breakthrough came when he successfully sued the Oxford English Dictionary for its continued use of "easy" without explicit approval from the businessman.

Have won the case through two vital pieces of evidence. In a vox pop of 200 UK citizens taken by EasyGroup, over two of them immediately connected the word "easy" with Mr Haji-Iannou (the judge was also swayed by the fact Mr Haji-Iannou had been on the television 53 times in the last two years and yet the OED had not made one media appearance).

As for his orange livery, Stelios pointed out that orange was simply a combination of primary colours red, green and blue. All colours including white, he pointed out, could be created using exactly the same colours he had used to create his orange.

Ever the philanthropist however, Mr Haji-Iannou demonstrated his man-of-the-people credentials when he allowed the Oxford English Dictionary unlimited free use of the word in perpetuity so long as it added the footnote "Use granted by Stelios Haji-Iannou of EasyGroup" in all its editions.

While Mr Haji-Iannou made no money from the OED case, he then set about protecting his word against misuse by other corporations. Applying the law retrospectively, invoices to media organisations alone reached £12 billion.

Papers now have the choice of paying either a nominal 0.0001p per use of the word "easy" or purchase an annual "Easy License" for £300,000. Low-level users of the word will from July be able to pay for their use of the word online at www.easypay.com.

However, in keeping with his loving, caring image, Mr Haji-Iannou has permitted all non-profit and educational use of the word for free, provided the relevant parties file a form explaining what use they plan to put the word to and enclose a £20 administrative charge.

"I only chase those who attempt to use my good name to attempt to sell their product or ideas," Mr Haji-Iannou explained in an interview last week. "And that is anyone that uses the word 'easy' in any situation whatsoever. I have no interest in attacking ordinary people."

Asked how he could justify enforcing control over a common word in the English dictionary, Stelios was defiant. "I am not stopping people from doing anything. If they want to suggest something is painless or free from effort, they can use the words 'effortless', 'simple' or 'straightforward'. I have no control over those words yet and I have no intention of doing so, so everyone is free to use them as they wish."