Entertainment giants AEG and Live Nation have settled a case over a New Year’s Eve event in the city of Coachella in California.
AEG-owned Goldenvoice was unhappy with the event’s name which was originally called ‘Coachella Day One 22’, as it believed it implied a formal connection to the flagship Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Goldenvoice believed that the name was too similar to Coachella and infringed upon the trademarks for the event.
The New Year’s event is produced by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians at an outdoor venue in Coachella. It went ahead despite AEG and Goldenvoice attempting to block sales and marketing with a lawsuit that requested a temporary restraining order against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. This was rejected in December last year.
Darrell Mike, chairman of the Twenty-Nine Palms Tribe, told Digital Music News: “We are equally thrilled that our outdoor venue, Coachella Crossroads, will be able to continue operation under its given name. The strong-arming of Goldenvoice and its parent company AEG to take reign over a name of a region and businesses who choose to identify with it is disrespectful to small and large operations, those under their employ, and the indigenous people who live within the valley.”
AEG was unable to sue the tribe directly due to sovereign immunity from lawsuits, instead targeting Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Live Nation attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed arguing that it was a dispute between Goldenvoice and Twenty-Nine Palms. The judge decided that the litigation against Live Nation could go forward and out-of-court negotiations between the two parties started.
Both sides agreed to mediation which started at the beginning of August and has resulted in a settlement, with the terms currently unknown.
The court filing read: “Please take notice that the parties attended mediation on August 9, 2022, and executed a binding term sheet agreement to settle this matter. A stipulated Notice of Dismissal of all claims with prejudice will be filed no later than August 19, 2022.”
Image: Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash
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