Coachella trademark: Tweet that could work against Afrochella pops up

According to a Twitter correspondence cited by the Coachella organisers in their thirty-page lawsuit filed against the Afrochella festival organisers in Ghana, an organiser of the latter festival was aware of the semblance between the two names and appeared to confirm intentions to use the fair sentiments accrued by the Coachella to promote their said event. In a tweet sent out by the handle @mistameister bearing the date 11 October 2017, he said: “I just feel like they chose the name Afrochella because they want to create an African version of the Coachella vibe.” He also invited opinions on the name by adding: “Or they shouldn’t have? Share your sentiments with me.” Edward Asafu Adjaye, alias Deezy, a co-founder of Afrochella, tweet-quoted the above and in reaction said: “Lmao. Exactly!” “A Coachella themed event wasn’t going to be called the Gye Nyame Fest,” Deezy concluded in no uncertain terms. This is the correspondence, in screenshot form, cited by Coachella organisers to buttress their claim of a trademark infringement. On Wednesday, 5 October 2022, Goldenvoice, organisers of Coachella, filed a suit in a California federal court claiming that Afrochella was “intentionally trading on the goodwill of 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.” “Not simply content to imitate and attempt to trade on the goodwill of Coachella, Defendants even went so far as to apply in Ghana to register Coachella as their own trademarks,” the suit further stated. “Despite repeated requests from Plaintiffs, Defendants have refused to adopt their own distinctive event name, and as a result, instances of actual confusion have already appeared on social media,” Goldenvoice again alleged in their suit. The revealed purpose of lawsuit is to seek “injunctive relief and damages for Defendants willful infringement in the United States and to protect the public here from confusion.” Also, according to a tweet by Ghanaian media personality Ebenezer Donkor, alias NYDJ, “Coachella first warned Afrochella in 2016.” On Wednesday, 7 September 2022, African superstars Burna Boy and Stonebwoy were named as the headliners for Afrochella 2022 in Ghana. Despite the legal tussle, American rap star Chance the Rapper has tweeted in reaction that: "We are still going to Afrochella."