Coachella lawsuit didn’t influence rebranding of Afrochella, says Ken Agyapong
Speaking on Hitz FM’s Day Break on Tuesday (10 January), the co-founder of Afrochella said his outfit won the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The co-founder of Afrochella festival, Ken Agyapong Jnr has disclosed that the rebranding of Afrochella to AfroFuture got nothing to do with Coachella lawsuit.
Speaking on Hitz FM’s Day Break on Tuesday (10 January), he made known that his outfit won the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and its organiser, Goldenvoice.
Though he didn’t want to give much details, he said, “we won the case”. Despite winning the case, Agyapong explained that the change of name was necessary for rebranding 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 explained.
The music festival powerhouse Coachella and African diaspora-focused Afrochella gave a hing on being at odds when Coachella sued the Ghanaian music festival for trademark infringement just two months before last December’s show which has the likes of Burna Boy, Stonebwoy, Fireboy DML performing.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court on Oct. 5, states: “[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.”
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