A judge has handed the organizers of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival a win by granting a temporary restraining order against the advertisers of a New Year’s Eve event with a similar name, according to court papers obtained Tuesday.
Last week, Coachella filed a trademark-infringement suit against Live Nation Entertainment over “Coachella Day One 22,” produced by the Twenty-Nine Palms band of Mission Indians and advertised on Live Nation’s Ticketmaster platform.
The plaintiffs allege that the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Missions Indians, operating as Coachella Crossroads and located five miles from the site of the Coachella Valley Festival, are “intentionally trading on the goodwill” of Coachella festival, causing a likelihood of “consumer confusion and false association.”
Late Monday, Judge R. Gary Klausner granted a temporary restraining order against website host Bluehost, stopping it from promoting “Coachella Day One 22” online. The judge also ordered Live Nation to stop promoting and selling tickets to the Twenty-Nine Palms event on Ticketmaster.
In a complaint by the plaintiffs, it states that the Twenty-Nine Palms of Mission Indians and Coachella Crossroads are not named as defendants in the action because both have asserted through their counsel that they are entitled to sovereign immunity and not subject to suit.
Attempts to reach a Twenty-Nine Palms representative were not immediately successful.