According to Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift's lawyers filed this week calling Maren Wade's trademark suit over the 'The Life of a Showgirl' album title 'nonsensical' and asking the judge to dismiss the case with prejudice.
Wade ran a Las Vegas Weekly column, a podcast, and what Swift's own filing describes as live cabaret performances at golf resorts and RV parks. Then in March she sued a 14-time Grammy winner over an album name. Her lawyer's pitch, in the record: she spent 12 years building the brand and watched it get 'absorbed in real time into a multi-billion dollar commercial machine.' The asymmetry, he says, tips in the plaintiff's favor. The asymmetry is the whole case.
The confusion theory is that a fan might buy the album and believe it is an extension of a showgirl's golf resort cabaret. Swift's lawyers call that 'nonsensical,' which is the kindest word in the filing, and want it tossed with prejudice. There is also the jurisdiction angle: Swift lives in Tennessee, the suit is in Los Angeles, and somebody at the firm did not think that needed a fact check.
Funnier still, the USPTO actually denied Swift's original application to register the title, over confusion with Wade's column. The trademark office thought the two shared a shelf, and now the biggest album on earth is in court to prove the office wrong. The suit is the product, and the product is the suit.
YOUR TURN: if a judge asks you to name the side that sounds like a marketing department, which one do you pick?
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to add your two cents. They are worth exactly that.