A Las Vegas performer named Maren Wade filed a lawsuit against Taylo r Swift, as well as related business parties, on March 30 for copyright infringement, according to a lawsuit obtained by E! News. In the files, Wade alleges that the title of Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, is too similar to Confessions of a Showgirl, the title of a column Wade says she started in 2014 which has since evolved into a podcast and live show.
Wade—who previously celebrated the release of Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl online—also states in the lawsuit that she registered the name Confessions of a Showgirl with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2015 for entertainment services.
“After years of continuous use, the mark achieved incontestable status,” the lawsuit reads, “a statutory recognition of the goodwill Plaintiff earned through her sustained, personal effort.
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Wade’s lawsuit says the two names share the same structure, dominant phrase and “overall commercial impression,” and that they’re directed at the same pool of consumers.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that when Swift and her team attempted to trademark the album’s name, the USPTO “refused on the ground that Defendants’ designation is confusingly similar to Plaintiff’s established mark. Defendants were therefore placed on actual notice that their chosen designation was likely to be confused with a mark that already belonged to someone else.”
E! News reached out to Taylor’s rep but did not receive comment.
Wade’s lawsuit names the following counts: trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition.
