California's Coachella Music Festival is suing a car show called Carchella for... well... being called Carchella. Promoters of the famous festival say that the automobile event is capitalising on its name and causing confusion in the marketplace.
Organised by US radio presenter DJ Envy - real name RaaShaun Casey - two Carchella events have already been held this year in Atlanta and Atlantic City. The third is set to take place next month in Detroit, followed by another in Miami in December.
The new lawsuit states that DJ Envy's events employ not only a similar name to Coachella, but also uses logos similar to its own, and its mix of car exhibitions and hip hop music has significant crossover with the festival too - Coachella having hosted a BMW exhibition in 2017 and Hyundai shows in 2011 and 2012.
This is resulting in "confusion, mistake and deception" to the public, who could easily assume some affiliation between the two events.
"The plaintiffs have no objection to defendants' holding their events", says the legal filing. "But defendants must adopt and use an event name and mark that avoid a likelihood of consumer confusion and false association with plaintiffs, plaintiffs' Coachella festival, and the Coachella marks. Despite repeated requests, defendants have refused to adopt their own distinctive event name and mark".
Apparently a cease-and-desist was sent earlier this month, but received no response. Hence this lawsuit. DJ Envy has also not yet responded to the litigation, which was filed on Monday. Meanwhile, he continues to promote the upcoming Carchella events on his social media accounts.
Anyway, I guess this all means I have to go back to the drawing board with the name of my new event exhibiting tour buses.