Lawsuit over the ‘Coachella’ name between AEG and Live Nation settled

AEG/Goldenvoice and Live Nation have been feuding since 2021 over a New Year’s Eve event using ‘Coachella’ in the name, and have recently come to a settlement.

by Stacy Simons Santos of Celebrity Access

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – AEG/Goldenvoice and Live Nation (LN) have quietly settled their trademark dispute over using the Coachella name for a rival event.

The event called Coachella Day One ’22 was organized by the Native American Tribe Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. The New Year’s Eve event was scheduled to take place at a Southern California venue named Coachella Crossroads. AEG couldn’t sue Twenty-Nine Palms directly because the tribal nation has sovereign immunity from lawsuits.

Instead, AEG/Goldenvoice’s lawsuit accused LN and Ticketmaster (TM) of copyright infringement, alleging the tribe is “intentionally trading on the goodwill” of its Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

AEG’/Goldenvoice was granted a temporary restraining order against LN and TM in December 2021, preventing the sale or advertisement of tickets while the case was further contested. US District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner rejected LN’s bid to have the lawsuit thrown out earlier this year. However, Bloomberg Law reports the issue has now been settled out of court.

Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but according to Law360, AEG and LN entered into mediation on August 9, resulting in a settlement. A notice of dismissal will be filed “no later than August 19, 2022”. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

The Goldenvoice-promoted Coachella Festival registered the “Coachella” trademark for musical events in 2006. Its most recent edition was held in April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA.