ALBAWABA - Taylor Swift faces lawsuit over “Showgirl” title, sparking trademark dispute.
March 30 (Reuters) - A Las Vegas performer sued pop star Taylor Swift on Monday, saying that her new hit record "The Life of a Showgirl" infringes on her trademark rights.
Within the lawsuit, Maren Wade claimed that Swift's album promotion could "drown out" her long-running "Confessions of a Showgirl" stage show. Wade asked the court to stop Swift from making people confused with her album title.
Jaymie Parkkinen, Wade's lawyer, said, "We have a lot of respect for Swift's talent and success, but trademark law is there to protect what creators of all levels have built." Swift's 12th album, "The Life of a Showgirl," came out in October and broke all-time streaming records on Spotify on its way to becoming the best-selling album of 2025.
Wade wrote in the lawsuit that she started writing her Las Vegas Weekly column called "Confessions of a Showgirl" in 2014.
Thereafter, she said, she went on tour with a show called the same name, which was "honest and often funny accounts of the challenges and absurdities of a career in the entertainment industry, from getting stuck inside a giant birthday cake to impersonating a Madonna impersonator."
Last year, Swift's application for a federal "Life of a Showgirl" trademark covering "musical performances and live entertainment services" was turned down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because it might be confused with Wade's existing "Confessions of a Showgirl" trademark.
According to Wade's lawsuit, Swift's continued use of the "Life of a Showgirl" name "drowns out" her trademark "until consumers begin to assume that the original is the imitation." Defendants said they would destroy in weeks what Plaintiff had worked on for twelve years, Wade said.
Wade asked the court to stop Swift from using her "Showgirl" brand and to give her money damages that were not mentioned.
