A Las Vegas performer is suing Taylor Swift for trademark infringement over her latest album’s “showgirl” branding.
Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” was announced in August and debuted in October. The glitzy album art, complete with art deco imagery and glamorous feathered outfits, centered burlesque aesthetics for Swift’s newest era.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, singer and columnist Maren Wade claims Swift’s album and her newspaper column-turned-show, titled “Confessions of a Showgirl,” include similarities.
“Both share the same structure, the same dominant phrase, and the same overall commercial impression,” says the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. “Both are used in overlapping markets and are directed at the same consumers.”
The weekly column about Wade’s life in the entertainment industry launched in Las Vegas Weekly in 2014 and has since evolved into a podcast and a live cabaret show. Wade’s “Confessions of a Showgirl” branding has been trademarked since 2015. Her lawsuit claims Swift and her team should have noticed the similarities.
“Maren spent more than a decade building CONFESSIONS OF A SHOWGIRL. She registered it. She earned it,” Wade’s attorney, Jaymie Parkkinen, wrote in a statement. “When Taylor Swift’s team applied to register THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL, the Trademark Office refused, finding Swift’s mark confusingly similar.”
