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*The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has a competitor by the name Afrochella, which is a Ghanaian Music festival. The original Coachella is not happy about what its Ghanaian “counterpart” is trying to do. Through its Goldenvoice organization, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Afrochella.
Goldvoice filed the lawsuit in California district court. In the court papers, they accuse Afrochella of “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’.”
Coachella also asserted that Afrochella “fraudulently” attempted to register both trademarks as their own.”
The suit further claims that Afrochella “even went so far as to apply in Ghana to register Coachella and Chella as their own trademarks, using the exact same stylization as Plaintiffs’ registered Coachella (stylized) mark.”
Goldenvoice has also explained that they have sued Afrochella because they don’t want festival-goers to believe that Afrochella is “authorized by” or “affiliated with” the company or Coachella.
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Goldenvoice is also seeking “damages for trademark and service mark infringement and unfair competition.” Furthermore, they want Afrochella to pay over $100,000 for allegedly “cybersquatting” various domain names.
The battle between Coachella and Afrochella has been raging for some time, so this recent lawsuit is not the first salvo thrown. Back in 2019, Goldenvoice is said to have sent a warning notice to Afrochella to stop using their trademark. But Afrochella ignored the warning and even went ahead with throwing the next festival in Accra, Ghana, in 2021. The festival was to take place in 2020 but was postponed, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Afrochella still took place this past December. It appears that Afrochella is giving an “F-U” to Coachella as it’s set to expand the festival to South Africa.
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