Electric Daisy Carnival, or EDC rather, holds the notoriety of being one of the most prestigious electronic dance music festivals in the world. It is difficult to imagine a world where the name Electric Daisy Carnival is not coined with the festival erected by Pasquale Rotella. However, EDC’s distinguished promoter, Insomniac, is embroiled in a tedious and unkept legal battle over the trademark ownership of the name “Electric Daisy Carnival” in both the United States and Australia. There is a verbose amount of circumstances that have lead up to the debacle. Below, you will find a summary of those events.
Beginning in the 80s and 90s, Stephen Enos, better known as Los Angeles rave advocate Steve Kool-Aid, was responsible for conducting an array of of LA based raves entitled Electric Daisy Carnival. The name was ratified in 1997 by Pasquale Rotella and the immensely profitable Insomniac aggregation. Since it’s inaugural celebration, EDC has become an annual gathering that started in Los Angeles, before moving to Las Vegas as well as other destinations like Mexico, Puerto Rico and New York.
In June of 2013, Stephen Enos registered an application in Australia to attribute the rights to the name “Electric Daisy Carnival” for the purpose of “live music concerts, disc jockey concerts, dance parties, music tours, musical and artistic performances and night clubs”. Six months following the application, Insomniac took legal action and filed an antagonistic application to claim ownership in Australia to ultimately own everything spanning from live music affairs to video recordings, energy drinks and temporary tattoos. However, the case history on the Intellectual Property Australia database corresponds that the proceedings have yet to be determined as the case is still under much scrutiny.
One thing is for certain, Electric Daisy Carnival will not cease to exist once the affair is rectified. The question is, who will possess the ownership rights to the highly coveted name, “Electric Daisy Carnival”?
Source: inthemix