Features
Ultra Europe vs. Miami: WEG Responds
In a counter claim to Adria MM Productions’ federal complaint against Worldwide Entertainment Group, the Ultra Music Miami promoter says it indeed owns the Ultra Europe trademark.
Lynne Sladky/AP – Ultra Selfie
Michelle Talayer takes a group photograph with friends as she waits in line to attend the Ultra Music Festival in Miami.
Following a federal complaint by Ultra Europe promoter AMM against Worldwide Entertainment Group, filed April 28, the Ultra Music Festival promoter responded with a counter claim May 6.
In it, WEG denies all of the Croatian company’s allegations, some of which included breach of contract, fraud and unjust enrichment. WEG also asserts several defenses.
According to the Florida-based company, it was AMM who breached its agreement. WEG also highlights its “good faith performance of the agreement” and “AMM’s failure to plead certain counts with the required specifity.”
“Further, WEG asserted that it was indeed the owner of the Ultra Europe mark, as well as the Croatia Music Week mark,” according to the summary of the counter claim, which was obtained by Pollstar.
WEG claims AMM “breached the agreement by failing to pay the license fees to WEG, holding unauthorized press conferences, violating the restrictions on creating new electronic music events and improperly using our trademarks.”
According to the counter claim, AMM also passed on some of WEG’s trade secrets to a competitor and “advanced and unlawfully retained ticketing proceeds of approximately €1.4 million for the 2017 event.”
Other points accuse AMM of unlawfully regaining “access to the Ultra Europe e-mail accounts which are owned by WEG following WEG’s retake of the emails,” and infringing “on WEG’s trademark rights, specifically with their use of the Ultra brand in connection with the Croatia Music Week Zagreb and Croatia Winter Music Festival events.”
AAM in its original complaint said it was tricked into various licensing agreements by WEG, in which it was made “to pay the defendant licensing and promotional fees for the use of its proprietary marks in Europe,” as Courthouse News reports.
Other demands made by Worldwide Entertainment included the payment of advances, “exclusive approval of vendors, prohibitively expensive staffing arrangements, luxury travel arrangements and additional promotional fees,” according to the complaint. All of this made AMM lose money even though Ultra Europe had been successful in Croatia since its launch in 2013, the promoter claims.