Coachella sues Ghanaian Afrochella for copyright infringement
By Hilary KimuyuGhanaian music festival Afrochella is currently facing a lawsuit from California’s Coachella for trademark violation.
Both Coachella and Goldenvoice, the festival’s organiser, filed a lawsuit against the Ghanaian music event on October 5 claiming that Afrochella is “intentionally” using the event’s trademark name.
“Afrochella is intentionally trading on the goodwill of Coachella and Goldenvoice’s well-known COACHELLA and CHELLA festivals and trademarks,” Coachella Valley Music and Arts claimed in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Afrochella is doing this 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.”
@sweetsistah #afrochella #music #festival I. #ghana was a great experience… only thing is #wizkid didn’t come out till like 5am 😩 Other than that – we definitely recommend 💯 Decembers really do be Decembering over there #ghanatiktok #ghanatours #beachbirdstravel #culture #afrobeats #decemberinghana
♬ Joy Joy – Black Motion
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The lawsuit was filed to stop confusion, protect the brand, and stop the accused from using the name further in an act of trademark violation.
Afrochella, which began in 2017 celebrating Afrobeat music, holds its next edition from December 28 – 29 at El Wak Stadium in Accra, Ghana. The line-up this year includes Burna Boy, Stonebwoy, and Ayra Starr.
@drumwavemultimedia #afrochella
♬ original sound – drumwavemultimedia
This isn’t the first time that Coachella has pursued a lawsuit for trademark violation.
In 2021, the festival and Goldenvoice filed a similar suit against entertainment company Live Nation over a New Year’s Eve event titled ‘Coachella Day One 22’, which was organised and hosted by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians.
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The lawsuit, which also claimed that the event was “intentionally trading on the goodwill” of the major festival, was subsequently settled in August last year.
Despite that initial warning, and following a pandemic-postponed fest in 2020, Afrochella returned to Accra, Ghana in 2021.
However, with the festival set to expand to South Africa later this month and organizers hosting offshoot U.S. events, Goldenvoice filed a lawsuit to further protect what they claim is ownership of all things “-chella.”
“Not simply content to imitate and attempt to trade on the goodwill of Chella and Coachella, Defendants 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,” the lawsuit states.
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The lawsuit also noted that the African festival’s website is a North American-based domain, which helps it draw U.S. festivalgoers:
“A substantial portion of the revenue generated from the travel tours sold on the website accessible at the afrochella.com domain name are from US-based customers.”
In addition to an immediate restraining order on the Afrochella name, Goldenvoice is also seeking “damages for trademark and service mark infringement and unfair competition,” as well as $100,000 over claims of cybersquatting domain names.
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