With a legal feud on her hands, Taylor Swift is not backing down.
A legal battle is brewing between the 36-year-old singer and a former Las Vegas showgirl.
Swift’s legal team released a strong-worded statement, tearing into the performer’s lawsuit and dismissing it as a blatant attempt to cash in on the singer’s name.
Taylor Swift is not backing down as she has a legal feud on her hands
Image credits: Christopher Polk/Getty Images
Maren Flagg, who performs as Maren Wade, filed her lawsuit in March, saying Taylor Swift’s latest album title “The Life of a Showgirl” infringes on her trademark for the phrase “Confessions of a Showgirl.”
The lawsuit said Flagg had spent the last decade building a career around her “Confessions of a Showgirl” brand. Flagg also asked for Swift to be immediately blocked from selling related merchandise while they battle in court.
Filed in the United States District Court in California, Flagg’s lawsuit said the two titles “share the same structure, the same dominant phrase, and the same overall commercial impression.”
“Both are used in overlapping markets and are directed at the same consumers,” the lawsuit added.
Swift’s legal team called Maren Flagg’s lawsuit a blatant attempt to cash in on the singer’s name
Image credits: marenwade
Swift’s defense team slammed Flagg as well as the lawsuit in a brief they filed Wednesday.
“This motion, just like Maren Flagg’s lawsuit, should never have been filed. It is simply Ms. Flagg’s latest attempt to use Taylor Swift’s name and intellectual property to prop up her brand,” said the singer’s lawyers.
They said Flagg is attempting to “broadly lump her cabaret show” and Swift’s album “together as ‘entertainment services.’”
The lawyers said it was “absurd” to compare Swift’s chart-topping album with Flagg’s cabaret shows, which they said were mostly conducted at small venues.
Image credits: taylorswift
Flagg “performs, if at all, in small intimate venues, such as a: ’55+ active community,’ ’55+ golf resort’; ‘RV & Golf Resort’; ’90 seat cabaret-style venue’ that offers dinner; hotel; and private supper club.”
They said her website also has no upcoming performances listed.
The lawyers said Flagg had never used “The Life of a Shiwgirl” in her social media promotion before the album announcement.
But soon after Swift unveiled her album, Flagg began reframing her branding vocabulary in her social media promotion, they said.
Flagg never used “The Life of a Showgirl” in her online promotions before the album announcement, the lawyers said
Image credits: marenwade
“Since the album announcement, plaintiff has reframed her brand around the album, flooding her social media accounts with posts attempting to align herself with Ms. Swift and the album,” said the brief filed on Wednesday.
“Following the [album] announcement, plaintiff used the phrase or posted generally about Ms. Swift or the album over 40 times on her branded Instagram and TikTok accounts,” they said.
Image credits: marenwade
Flagg not only didn’t show concern about the album after its announcement but even spent several months “centering” her brand on “‘The Life of a Showgirl’s’ name, artwork, music, and lyrics to promote her little-known cabaret show,” the lawyers continued.
They also claimed that Flagg announced a brand new podcast “mimicking” the pop icon’s album artwork, logo, title, and taglines, just four days after Swift made the announcement.
A look at Flagg’s Instagram and TikTok shows her lip-syncing to the pop icon’s songs and adding hashtags related to her album
Currently, Flagg’s TikTok and Instagram timelines include posts of her in her showgirl get-up, lip-syncing to Swift’s songs.
The hashtags in her posts include: #thelifeofashowgirl #TS12 #taylorswift and #swifties
Swift’s lawyers pointed out that Flagg’s TikTok and Instagram pages were “flooded” with “40+ advertisements for her brand using Ms. Swift’s music, trademarks, and other intellectual property without permission.
“Each of these advertisements constitutes actionable infringement,” they added, “and TASRM [TAS Rights Management] will be pursuing appropriate remedies for that.”
Image credits: taylorswift
Flagg’s attorney, Jaymie Parkkinen, said in a statement to Billboard that he and his client are still moving forward with the lawsuit.
“We read it. Defendants assert First Amendment protection for napkins and hairbrushes,” the statement said. “We look forward to filing our response next week.”
Back in March, Parkkinen said his client was never contacted about the Love Story singer using the “Life of a Showgirl” title.
They also claimed Swift went ahead with the title even after trying to trademark the phrase with the US Patent and Trademark Office but being denied because it was too similar to Flagg’s.
Image credits: taylorswift
“She registered it. She earned it. We have great respect for Swift’s talent and success, but trademark law exists to ensure that creators at all levels can protect what they’ve built,” Parkkinen told CBS News in March. “That’s what this case is about.”
Flagg’s lawsuit asked for the ongoing sales of Swift’s album and merchandise to be blocked because each sale “compounds the confusion in the marketplace and further erodes [Wade’s] ability to be recognized as the soul source of her Confessions of a Showgirl brand.”
The former Las Vegas showgirl first began using the “Confessions of a Showgirl” banner when she started writing a column with the same title for the Las Vegas Weekly.
Flagg said she developed the “Confessions of a Showgirl” banner branding because she has a lot of “crazy stories” to tell
Image credits: marenwade
Flagg has said in interviews that she believes her experience as a showgirl has given her a bunch of “crazy stories” that she wanted to share with the world.
“I just have crazy stories. I have stories about getting stuck in a giant birthday cake, impersonating a Madonna impersonator when I don’t sound like Madonna or look like Madonna… getting to meet Mariah Carey,” she told Las Vegas Morning Blend in a 2024 interview.
She turned her thoughts and experiences from her showbiz life into a live show and touring production, trademarking “Confessions of a Showgirl” in 2015.
“Shows Americans will sue people for anything lol,” one commented online
