Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Coachella.
Afrochella, a music and culture festival scheduled to take place this December in Ghana, is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit from Coachella and its organizer, Golden Voice. The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Wednesday, October 7, Pitchfork reports.
The similarities between the names of the festivals is at the root of the lawsuit. In a court document, Coachella's attorneys claimed that 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.”
Read the full lawsuit below via Pitchfork. The FADER has reached out to Coachella and Afrochella for comment.