Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and its organizing company Goldenvoice, are suing Ghana’s Afrochella music festival for copyright infringement.
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Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Suing Ghana’s Afrochella Festival Over Copyright Infringement
Coachella Music Festival, LLC and Goldenvoice, LLC claim that the Ghanian music festival is “intentionally trading on the good will” of the Californian festival’s name and trademarks.
Now, Afrochella 2022 is currently scheduled to take place on December 28 and 29 at El Was Stadium in Accra, Ghana. Headliners include: Burna Boy, Stonebwoy, Fireboy DML, Ayra Starr, Black Sherif, and many more.
On Wednesday (October 5), the lawsuit was filed in a California federal court. The lawsuit is addressed to Afrochella Limited; BBNZ Live Limited; Culture Management Group Limited and Does 1-20.
The suit cites that Coachella Music Festival, LLC and Goldenvoice, LLC are complaining about “trademark and service mark infringement; false designation of origin; cybersquatting; and unfair competition.” They are demanding for trial by jury.
They explicitly allege, “[Afrochella, Ltd. is] intentionally trading on the goodwill of [Coachella and Goldenvoice’s] well-known COACHELLA and CHELLA festivals and trademarks by actively promoting music events in the United States and in Ghana using the confusingly similar mark ‘AFROCHELLA’ and by fraudulently attempting to register Plaintiffs’ actual trademarks as their own.”
Meanwhile, it is also reported that Coachella Music Festival, LLC and Goldenvoice, LLC filed a lawsuit similar to this one last year in December. Then it was against Live Nation Entertainment, claiming they were guilty of contributory trademark infringement.
According to the complaint, Coachella and Goldenvoice cited Live Nation held an event organized and promoted by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians and called it Coachella Day One 22. At the time, Twenty-Nine Palms was operating as Coachella Crossroads.
Coachella and Goldenvoice ended up suing Live Nation Entertainment for selling tickets to the event, which they claim allegedly infringed upon their trademarks.
They said Coachella Crossroads were “intentionally trading on the goodwill” of the annual music and arts festival. They added that Coachella Crossroads’ event would like cause “consumer confusion and false association” on the original event.
Furthermore, the Coachella Crossroads event venue was located just 5 miles away from where Coachella holds is annual music and arts festival, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
In August 2022, Coachella settled their lawsuit. Both parties agreed to settle the matter; however, the details of the settlement were not readily made available.
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