Coachella Sues Underground Fest Hoodchella For $100K Over Name
Brands matter and protecting a big brand is big business. A small underground Los Angeles festival is learning that lesson the hard way after riffing on the name of the mighty Coachella.
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Is all PR good PR?
Coachella Music Festival organizers Goldenvoice have sued an underground festival promoter underground Los Angeles-based event Hoodchella, alleging trademark and service mark infringement, false designation of origin, dilution, unfair competition and cybersquatting over the festival's registration of the hoodchella.com domain name.
Goldenvoice, through the lawsuit, is seeking both an injunction to stop the festival, and compensatory damages of at least $100,000.
According to Billboard, Hoodchella festival Kamil Al-Ahdali is the primary focus of the lawsuit. Al-Ahdali launched Hoodchella in 2015 as a one-day festival in downtown Los Angeles during the first weekend of Coachella with a lineup featuring a host of DJs and other artists. This year, the festival's website announced that it was expanding to three days and would be taking place one week ahead of Coachella's first weekend.
Hoodchella organizers are touting a change.org petition on their official Twitter page, which reads in part, "we are not in anyway [sic] associated with coachella [sic] and we have never been associated with golden voice, AEG, or Coachella. It's clear that our fan base knows we are two completely different establishments being that we already gained a fan base from our past underground art and music shows."
via CelebrityAccess
