Taylor Swift is countersuing a theme park for playing her music without a license.
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.
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.
