Coachella takes on Urban Outfitters in TM claim

The organisers of music festival Coachella have taken a shot at retailer Urban Outfitters in a trademark infringement claim.

Coachella accused the retailer, and its subsidiary Free People, of selling ‘Coachella’-branded apparel. The claim was filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division on Tuesday, March 14.

The festival organisers own a number of ‘Coachella’ trademarks and have used them in connection with the festival and related goods and services since the first event in 1999.

Coachella is held in California.

Urban Outfitters also allegedly used the trademarks in webpage titles, meta description tags, meta keyword tags and URLs for pages containing the “directly competitive goods”.

According to the claim, Urban Outfitters has also purchased ‘Coachella’ marks as keywords from one or more internet search companies.

“The advertisement uses a font evocative of plaintiffs, of Coachella and the Coachella marks, and that is similar to the font used in the ‘Coachella’ (stylised) mark, and which is frequently used in plaintiffs’ own advertising materials,” said the claim.

Coachella accused the defendants of attempting to trade off the marks’ goodwill through selling goods such as the Coachella Valley Tunic.

The defendants have also sold branded apparel using the mark ‘Bella Coachella’ through online and physical retailers, according to the claim.

Coachella is seeking injunctive relief, removal of items offered for sale, corrective advertising, triple damages, profits, attorneys’ fees and a jury trial.

The festival, which takes place every April, attracted 600,000 attendees in 2016.

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