Afrochella Wins Copyright Infringement Suit by Coachella
Afrochella won the copyright infringement lawsuit
that Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and its organizer, Goldenvoice, brought against them, according to Kennedy Agyapong Jnr.
He said this while clarifying that the lawsuit wasn’t a factor in the decision to change the name of Afrochella to Afrofuture.
The complaint, which was submitted in the United States on October 5, 2022, claims that “AFROCHELLA is 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.” Coachella and Goldenvoice are the owners of the well-known COACHELLA and CHELLA festivals and trademarks.
However, Mr. Agyapong responded to the news in an interview with HitzFM by saying, “We won the case,” without going into much detail.
Despite winning the legal battle, he continued, “Afrochella” had to be changed in order to rebrand after five years.
“At the beginning of last year in February, when we dedicated that the theme for the year will be Afrofuturism, that is when we actually came up with the idea of changing names. Because, in the long run, we knew we were going to change the name.
“This is a rebirth, starting something new. The future is Africa and we want people to come to Africa, so that is why we wanted to do AfroFuture. The future is bright and we want more people to come to the continent,” he told Andy Dosty.
