Coachella put their foot down to stop ‘Fimchella’

Coachella has become one of the most sort after music festival, becoming known to be wall to wall celebrities.

To obtain this level of popularity, Coachella have been on the ball with protecting their brand.

Firstly, they took action against Hoodchella, a similar music festival, which ran in the same month and in a similar place geographically. Coachella was successful in forcing a name change for the rival festival to ‘Noise of the Hood’.

Also, they had to take action against retailer Urban Outfitters who were allegedly selling clothing which made reference to Coachella, giving customers the indication that the two brands were linked. This range of Coachella clothing was targeted towards festival goers and sparked Coachella taking legal action. This case is on-going.

The latest in Coachella’s legal battle is against a film festival, with the tag line Coachella for films. ‘Filmchella’ has been adopted by Robert Trevor Simms to describe a new film festival.

It has been reported that Coachella have issued a number of requests to Simms asking for a name change but these have been ignored, leading to legal action.

In the action, Coachella have been cited to say "no objection to defendants' holding a festival of their own, regardless of whether it features movies, films, music or otherwise."

"Plaintiffs appreciate the enthusiasm shown by defendants but they simply want defendants to use a distinctive name of their own that does not infringe or trade on the goodwill of plaintiffs' famous 'Coachella' marks."

It will be interesting to see how this case develops especially in relation to Coachella’s presence in the festival industry.

By Ellis Sweetenham