Golden voice, the organizers of the popular The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is suing Ghanaian music festival Afrochella for the alleged crime of trademark infringement.
In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday the 5th of October and acquired by Pitchfork, Golden voice and Coachella believe that Afrochella 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.”
This lawsuit comes on the heels of Golden Voice and Coachella LLC’s legal action taken against Live Nation Entertainment for the alleged unlawful act of “contributory trademark infringement”. In the now settled lawsuit and as reported by Pitchfork, “Goldenvoice claims that a music festival called Coachella Day One 22 infringes upon its Coachella trademarks by using an event name, as well as advertising, promotional, and marketing materials that are “strikingly similar” to those used by Golden voice for Coachella”.
As they were unable to sue the Twenty-nine Palms tribe due to their “sovereign immunity”, Golden voice and Coachella took the legal action against Livenation for selling tickets to an even called Coachella Day One 22.
It remains to be seen if Afrochella can settle this suit before December 28th and 29th, as they have already begun promoting the 2022 leg of their festival. The now unsure event is supposed to take place at the El Wak stadium in Accra, Ghana with Burna Boy and Stonebwoy as headliners. Ayra Star, Fireboy DML, Black Sherif and other Afrobeats artists were also billed to perform.
