One of the biggest and most popular festivals in the world Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (‘Coachella’) was postponed for October this year.
However, this wasn’t the only problem for the company organizer of the festival AEG Presents Ltd.
Recently, the European Office for intellectual property – trademarks and design (EUIPO) has revoked one of the AEG Presents’ European trademarks: ‘Coachella’ registered in classes 9, 16, 25, 35, and 41.
The reason was a request by a Spanish company that applied for an EU trademark ‘Coachella’ for wines. AEG Presents filed an opposition against this mark and the Spanish company initiated revocation procedure based on lack of genuine use on the EU territory.
AEG Presents submitted evidence for its trademark well-known status amongst the consumer in the EU and the sales of tickets.
However, the EUIPO revoked the ‘Coachella’ for all classes except the following services in class 41: Organisation, production and conducting of performing arts entertainments and festivals, such services provided on-line from a computer database or the Internet; performance of music, such services provided on-line from a computer database or the Internet; musical and visual entertainment provided on-line from a computer database or the Internet; providing digital music from the Internet.
This case serves as a good example of the complexity of proving a trademark genuine use in one territory when the products and services associated with the mark are offered mainly on another territory.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 