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A lawsuit says Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl stole the spotlight from the life of a real one.
Maren Wade says in the trademark infringement lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. federal court in California that the glittery branding of Swift’s 2025 album comes too close to the aesthetic of her own Confessions of a Showgirl.
That was the name of a column she wrote on backstage Sin City life in the Las Vegas Weekly starting in 2014, which she turned into a live show that she took on a national tour.
“Both share the same structure, the same dominant phrase and the same overall commercial impression,” the lawsuit says. “Both are used in overlapping markets and are directed at the same consumers.”
Wade is described as a “singer, songwriter, comedian and writer” in the lawsuit filed under her legal name, Maren Flagg, and her Showgirl brand encompasses performances, writing and digital media.
The Life of a Showgirl, Swift’s stadium-packing 12th studio album was released in October and sold four million copies in its first week. Its cover features her in Las Vegas cabaret garb, submerged in water with her current favourite colour scheme of orange and mint green.
On Tuesday, the morning after the lawsuit was filed, Swift dropped her newest video, for the album’s track Elizabeth Taylor, which features archival footage of the Hollywood luminary who died in 2011.
‘Textbook reverse confusion’
Wade appeared to embrace Swift’s use of the showgirl image initially, sharing Instagram posts that used Swift’s music, hashtags related to the album and the mint green colour scheme. But Wade’s social media presence has gone silent in recent months.
Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the company that manages Swift’s trademarks, her record label and its merchandising arm.
The lawsuit says the album, its promotion and the products surrounding it caused “textbook reverse confusion: a junior user’s overwhelming commercial presence drowns out the senior user’s mark, until consumers begin to assume that the original is the imitation. What plaintiff had built over 12 years, defendants threatened to swallow in weeks.”
A representative for Swift declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Wade and her lawyer say that the existence and trademark of Confessions of a Showgirl would not have escaped the notice of Swift’s team.
The lawsuit says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined to grant a trademark registration to Life of a Showgirl over potential confusion with the existing trademark.
“Defendants were therefore placed on actual notice that their chosen designation was likely to be confused with a mark that already belonged to someone,” the lawsuit says. “They continued using it anyway.”
A letter issued by the office in early March says the application was suspended due to potential confusion with another pending trademark filed earlier for Showgirl, by a third party and pertaining to perfume.
It also cited a “Likelihood of Confusion Refusal” based on the existing Confessions trademark.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction permanently barring Swift and her companies from using the Life of a Showgirl name and imagery, and monetary damages to be determined at trial, including profits attributable to the use of the brand.
