The average music fan may not know it, but there are two Coachella music festivals scheduled to take place in the desert of Southern California over the next several months. If AEG-owned promoter Goldenvoice has its way, however, the copycat Coachella Day One 22 will be wiped off the map. As Billboard reports, Goldenvoice filed a trademark infringement lawsuit on December 13th against AEG’s primary competitor Live Nation in US District Court in California.
Of course, Goldenvoice is known for its Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, which has taken place at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California since 1999. Ordinarily, the company would be suing the festival’s promoter, the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, but the Native American tribe is shielded from legal action due to sovereign immunity.
Instead, Goldenvoice is going after Live Nation for promoting and selling tickets to Coachella Day One 22 through Ticketmaster. According to Goldenvoice, the lawsuit comes after it sent two separate cease-and-desist letters to the promoter in October and November. The complaint adds that Ticketmaster’s ticket sales for other music events held at the outdoor venue Coachella Crossroads is in further breach of the Coachella trademark.
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Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is Bluehost, the hosting provider for the domain coachellacrossroads.com. The music venue first began using the Coachella trademark earlier this year. After allegedly informing Goldenvoice the space would only be used for local community events, the venue was used to host and promote concerts for artists like Toby Keith and Miranda Lambert.
In the lawsuit, Goldenvoice is asking the court to “issue a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining” Live Nation and Bluehost from further “advertising, promoting, marketing, franchising, selling and offering for sale any goods or services in connection with” the Coachella trademark. The promoter is also seeking damages for infringement and unfair competition.
Scheduled for December 31st, the inaugural Coachella Day One 22 lineup includes Shaquille O’Neal (performing as DJ Diesel), E-40, and Getter. The festival is currently slated to take place five miles from Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival’s site of Empire Polo Field.
The well-established Coachella will return in April 2022 after a two-year pause due to the pandemic. Headliners include Rage Against the Machine and Swedish House Mafia, with Travis Scott being dropped in the wake of his deadly Astroworld festival.
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