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Ultra Miami and Ultra Europe Promoter in Tense Legal Battle

Ultra Miami has filed a countersuit against the organizers of Ultra Europe in a legal battle over the trademark name, among other issues.

A Croatian promoter using the Ultra Music Festival icon and name is in a legal battle with the original, Miami-based Ultra Music Festival, reports the Miami New Times.

Adria MM Productions, the Croatian event promoters, filed suit on April 28 against Worldwide Entertainment Group Inc., which runs Miami's Ultra Music Festival. According to the paper, the Croatian festival claims Ultra Music Festival does not own the Ultra trademark in Croatia and the Miami festival has made "outrageous demands" including, "exclusive approval of vendors, prohibitively expensive staffing arrangements, luxury travel arranges, and additional promotional fees."

The Croatian festival also claims Ultra Music Festival has blocked them from social media. After the Croatian promoters backed out of a new, five-year plan, they claim Worldwide Entertainment Group cut them off from promotional social media channels, disabled emails accounts, prohibited public statements, and revoked their rights to promote the festival.

"Ultra repeatedly threatened to cancel the event when [we] did not acquiesce to Ultra's increasingly burdensome demands," wrote lawyers representing Adria MM Productions. Ultra Music Festival partnered with Adria MM Productions in 2013 to launch the Croation version of the music festival.

Miami's Ultra Music Festivals filed a countersuit citing breach of contract, unauthorized events, and sharing trade secrets, reports the Miami New Times. According to the Miami organizers, Adria MM Productions were in breach of contract by failing to pay required License Agreement fees. They also claim the Croatian promoters were, "improperly obtaining, advancing itself, and utilizing approximately €1.4 million from the sale of tickets to the 2017 event."

This latest legal battle has not affected Ultra Europe, as the festival is scheduled to take place this July. Featured performers include Carl Cox, Seth Troller B2B The Martinez Brothers, Nicole Moudaber, and DJ Snake. In 2014, we detailed our experiences at Ultra Europe.