25 February 2021
Newsdesk
The 'Cardigan' singer was recently hit by a lawsuit from the owners of Utah's Evermore Park, who have accused her of trademark infringement over her 'Evermore' album and related merchandise, and her trademark and music rights team, TAS Rights Management, have now hit back by filing a suit of their own, which accused the attraction of playing her songs on their grounds "without authorisation or license agreement".
Documents obtained by Rolling Stone included two letters sent by performance rights organisation BMI to the theme park in August and September 2019, with the countersuit claiming the organisation had reached out to Evermore Park several times but only received a response when they were told of the impending countersuit.
One letter stated: “In the past, letters have been mailed to your attention along with licenses reflecting your music usage fee of $1,728.67 (USD) for the period of May, 2019 to December, 2019 only.
“This fee does not include all other unlicensed periods in which you were using music.”
The lawsuit specifically references the park's use of Taylor's songs ‘Love Story’, ‘You Belong With Me’, and ‘Bad Blood’ and is seeking damages for each individual infringement on the 31-year-old star's work and performance.
In the original lawsuit, Evermore Park claimed Taylor's similarly-named album had caused "actual confusion", which negatively affected the attraction's online presence, as well as infringing on its marketing and merchandise and impacting its visitors.
According to court documents, theme park visitors asked staff whether "'Evermore' album was the result of a collaboration between Evermore and Taylor Swift or some other type of relationship.”
The suit included photographs of Evermore Park's merchandise and argued Taylor was offering similar products, which would be counterfeit as a result of their own trademark.
In response to a cease-and-desist letter from the theme park, the 'Me!' singer's lawyers branded the claims "baseless" and insisted that Taylor hadn't infringed on the trademark, pointing out she hasn't released items sold at the park, such as small dragon eggs, guild patches, and dragon mounts.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the 'Bad Blood' hitmaker branded the lawsuit - which is seeking at least $2 million in damages - "frivolous" and suggested park owners were just looking for money, pointing out their apparent financial woes.
