Taylor Swift is being sued for trademark infringement, false designation and unfair competition over the title of her last album, 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in California federal court by Maren Wade, a former Las Vegas showgirl who owns the trademark to “Confessions of a Showgirl.”
She is seeking unspecified damages from Swift and UMG Recordings and a court order that would bar the pop star from continuing to use the album title.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Wade’s lawyer Jaymie Parkinnen said: “A solo performer who spent twelve years building a brand shouldn’t have to watch it disappear because someone bigger came along.”
Wade sang on America’s Got Talent in 2014, the same year she started writing a column in the Las Vegas Weekly titled “Confessions of a Showgirl.” The column featured Wade’s reflections on her experiences as a Vegas showgirl, and she has since grown the brand into a podcast and live musical show. According to the filing, Wade’s trademark covers live stage performances, theatrical productions and television.
In the filing, Wade’s lawyers write that when Swift and UMG released their similarly titled album, “they did not do so quietly.”
The complaint continues: “Within weeks, the designation was affixed to consumer goods, stamped onto labels, tags, and packaging, and deployed as a source identifier across retail channels—all directed at the same audience Plaintiff had spent years cultivating.”
The filing states that when Swift applied to register The Life of a Showgirl as her own trademark, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined because they ruled that it was confusingly similar to Wade’s existing trademark.
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Their decision hinged on the phrase “of a Showgirl,” and found that the fact both trademarks would refer to musical and theatrical performances would be likely to cause consumers to mistakenly believe the two brands are connected.
Swift is now faced with the option of either buying out Wade’s claim to the name or fighting the case in court.
In the lawsuit, Wade accuses Swift of ignoring her trademark and states that her brand has been undermined as despite the fact that she has been using the name since 2014, many now believe that she has copied the singer’s album title. The filing states: “The continued erosion of that mark threatens the entirety of” Wade’s brand, the complaint states.
The Independent has approached Swift and Wade for comment.
