Well, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival recently took place in Indio. As expected, plenty of entities tried to use the "chella" suffix for their products or events. Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ("Coachella") did not find this form of copying flattering. For example, the Palm Desert Whole Foods announced a concert and tasting event it called "Wholechella." That caught the attention of Coachella who immediately sicced its attorneys on Whole Foods. Whole Foods took the path of least resistance and changed its event name to the Pre-Fest Beer Garden.
Similarly, Sean "Diddy" Combs tried to organize an event (a Bermuda Dunes bash) and named it "Combschella." Then there was the "Hoodchella" for a rap festival and "Filmchella" for a movie festival. All of these "chellas" raised the ire of Coachella and had to change the name of their event to remove the reference to "challa."
In addition to being aggressive in protecting its trademark, Coachella also protects its turf. For example, Coachella's artist contracts includes a "radius clause" which prohibits artists performing at Coachella from performing at music festivals or other events within a five-state radius of California from December to May. Well, the organizers of "Soul'd Out Music Festival" who could not book some artists because of the aforementioned radius clause were not amused. Soul'd Out is in Portland, Oregon and was not happy that it could not book artists who were playing at Coachella. So, Soul'd Out sued claiming that the radius clause was a violation of antitrust laws. Stay tuned.
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