Coachella Is Suing Ghana’s Afrochella Music Festival

Coachella Is Suing Ghana’s Afrochella Music Festival

Coachella is taking legal action against Afrochella. 

The Root reports that Coachella has launched a lawsuit for trademark infringement against the Afrochella music event in Ghana, which comes three years after AEG (the owner of Goldenvoice) warned the festival not to use its name.

AEG told Afrochella in 2019,

“Regardless of the celebration or event, your use of Afrochella as the name of a music and arts festival is highly likely to create a likelihood of confusion and mistake as to the affiliation, connection, or association of you with AEG and with Coachella.”

Fast forward three years later, and Afrochella is scheduled to take place on December 28 and 29 with performances from artists including include Burna Boy and Stonebwoy.

According to the lawsuit,

“[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.”

Controversy is nothing new at Coachella. As previously reported, the festival’s organizers were forced to scurry earlier this year after Kanye West withdrew from the two-weekend April event in Indio, California. It was originally planned for The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia to replace the rapper as headliners, but the “The Hills” singer threatened to withdraw if they didn’t agree to pay him Kanye West‘s $8.5 million fee.

Luckily though, he did end up performing.

In addition to $100k for cybersquatting domain names, Coachella is requesting a restraining order on the use of the Afrochella brand as well as damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

What are your thoughts on the entire situation? Let us know in the comments!