Coachella’s 2015 edition. Photo Credit: David JonesLast week, Live Nation fired back against Coachella’s “midnight ex parte” application in the companies’ legal battle over a yearend music event organized by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Now, the presiding judge has issued a preliminary injunction against Bluehost, which operates as Unified Layer and hosts Twenty-Nine Palms’ Coachella Crossroads website.
As mentioned, the overarching courtroom confrontation centers on an event that was formerly marketed as Coachella Day One 22, but has since been referred to (on the Coachella Crossroads website as well as Live Nation’s Ticketmaster) simply as Day One 22.
Coachella Crossroads, for its part, is a venue owned by the Twenty-Nine Palms, located about five miles from the site of Coachella proper. Coachella and its Goldenvoice organizer said in the complaint that they ceased opposing the Twenty-Nine Palms’ Coachella Crossroads trademark application after being assured that “the venue would only be used for local community events.”
Subsequently, however, the indigenous tribe – a non-party to the suit that Coachella acknowledged may have “sovereign immunity” – “started advertising and promoting live music events,” beginning with a performance from Toby Keith, per the action.
But this alleged sovereign immunity doesn’t extend to Live Nation and Bluehost, the plaintiffs likewise maintained. Lil Wayne, Getter, E-40, and Shaq (as DJ Diesel) are booked to play the New Year’s Eve show, which Goldenvoice claimed has “irreparably harmed” its brand and confused fans into thinking that the happening is associated with Coachella proper.
Lastly, regarding the multifaceted lawsuit’s details, the court on Monday, December 20th, ordered the defendants to “show cause, in writing, as to why a preliminary injunction should not issue.” Live Nation pushed back against the associated allegations, while Bluehost “failed to respond to the Court’s order by the” deadline, December 27th, according to new legal documents.
Bearing in mind the latter point, the court has also entered “a preliminary injunction enjoining Bluehost from hosting content on CoachellaCrossroads.com that promotes Twenty-Nine Palms’ music event under the name Coachella Day One 22.”
At the time of this piece’s writing, Bluehost – a subsidiary of Massachusetts-headquartered Endurance International Group – didn’t appear to have addressed the preliminary injunction on social media. That said, Twenty-Nine Palms previously changed the “Coachella Day One 22” name to “Day One 22 NYE” on the Coachella Crossroads website, as noted, and went as far as making the same alterations on billboards, per Live Nation’s filings.
Consequently, it looks as though Bluehost is already complying with the preliminary injunction. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the legal headaches and the omicron-prompted cancellation of several New Year’s Eve celebrations, Day One 22 remains set to kick off at 8 PM PT this Friday, according to the Coachella Crossroads website.
