Las Vegas performer Maren Wade has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Taylor Swift, claiming the singer's album 'The Life of a Showgirl' confuses consumers with her 'Confessions of a Showgirl' brand. The complaint targets merchandise sales, not the music itself. It was filed on March 30 in a case obtained by Billboard and Rolling Stone.
Maren Wade, a Las Vegas-based performer who goes by that stage name and whose legal name is Maren Flagg, trademarked 'Confessions of a Showgirl' in 2015 for her touring cabaret show that began as a column in Las Vegas Weekly in 2014. She alleges in the lawsuit that Swift's 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl,' released last October, shares a similar structure and phrasing, leading to consumer confusion in overlapping entertainment markets. The album topped the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks and sold 4 million units in its first week, Wade claims, overwhelming her smaller brand without harming Swift's commercial scale. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Swift's attempt to trademark the album title last November due to a 'likelihood of confusion' with Wade's mark, with the application suspended earlier this month pending a likely final refusal. Despite this, Wade says Swift, her company TAS Rights Management, Universal Music Group and Bravado continued using the name for merchandise like apparel, drinkware, candles and hairbrushes without her consent. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against those sales. Wade's lawyer, Jaymie Parkkinen, told Rolling Stone, 'Maren spent more than a decade building Confessions of a Showgirl. She registered it. She earned it... Trademark law exists to ensure that creators at all levels can protect what they’ve built.' The complaint states Wade respects Swift's creative expression and does not challenge the music. Representatives for Swift and UMG declined to comment.