Singer Taylor Swift escalated a feud with Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, this week after the theme park sued the singer for copyright infringement over her Evermore album, alleging in a new lawsuit that the fantasy park has been illegally performing Swift’s music for years without proper licensing.
Evermore Park is a self-described “experience park” in Utah themed to a European-style fantasy village with performers playing “fantasy characters,” which shares a name with Swift’s Evermore album released in December.
The park filed a federal lawsuit against Swift, her TAS Rights Management company and merchandise company Taylor Nation on Feb. 2, alleging the singer had violated the company’s “Evermore” trademark through her album and accompanying merchandise.
Swift’s Evermore products are “counterfeit” because they violate the park’s trademark on specific items, the park alleged, also pointing to how Swift described the album using the term “escapism”—which Evermore Park’s CEO has used in speaking about the park—and uses imagery in her “willow” music video that resembles the park’s own music albums.
There has been “actual confusion” as a result of Swift’s album, with people thinking it’s connected to the park, Evermore alleged, and the “deluge of online information” about Swift’s music has “crowded out” details of the Utah attraction online.
Swift’s TAS company then filed its own federal lawsuit on Feb. 22, alleging Evermore Park has also violated copyright law by “routinely” performing Swift’s songs at the park without proper licensing or permission since 2018, as well as songs by other performers like Katy Perry, Abba, the Beatles, Billy Joel, Queen and Whitney Houston.
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), which protects the rights to Swift’s songs, has sent multiple cease and desist letters to Evermore Park over the past several years informing them of the copyright infringement, the lawsuit alleges, but the park “blatantly ignored” the notices and only asked BMI to retroactively license the performances recently when they discovered litigation was “imminent.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
By contacting BMI and trying to pay now for their past performances, Evermore Park is “making a thinly-veiled attempt to fabricate a record to justify and retroactively authorize their intentional infringement that has gone unabated since Evermore Park opened in 2018,” Swift’s lawsuit alleges. “However, a cover-up attempt now does not and cannot erase years of willful and knowing infringement.”
CHIEF CRITIC
Evermore Park has not yet responded to a request for comment about Swift’s complaint. The singer’s counsel denounced the theme park’s copyright allegations as “baseless” in a December letter responding to a cease and desist letter about the claims. “Put simply, the Swift Parties have not infringed your client’s trademark, and it is inconceivable that there is any likelihood of confusion between your client’s theme park and related products and Ms. Swift’s music and related products,” attorney J. Douglas Baldridge wrote in the letter, which Evermore Park entered into the court record.
BIG NUMBER
$2,000,000. That’s how much Evermore Park is asking Swift to pay for each “counterfeit mark” the court determines to be illegal, in addition to other damages and having the court block any further trademark violations. (Forbes has calculated the singer’s net worth to be $365 million as of Oct. 2020.) Swift’s countersuit asks for damages but does not specify a monetary amount.
SURPRISING FACT
Swift’s counsel say they were tipped off about Evermore Park’s alleged copyright infringement when a former Evermore Park volunteer contacted the lawyers “advising of the unlicensed public performance of Artist’s music” on Feb. 3—one day after Evermore’s initial lawsuit was filed.
TANGENT
In addition to the alleged trademark infringement, the Evermore Park lawsuit also criticizes Swift’s “use of explicit lyrics and marketing of goods using vulgar terms” in her Evermore album and merchandise. The park specifically objects to a mug that says “fancy sh-t,” a lyric from Swift’s song “Tolerate It.”
KEY BACKGROUND
Swift has a history of being fiercely protective over her music rights and the compensation she receives for her work. The singer long refused to put her music catalog on Spotify because she felt the platform did not fairly compensate artists, and Apple Music changed a policy that stopped artists from being paid for music streamed during a free-trial period in response to Swift’s criticism. Swift is now in the process of re-recording her back catalog of songs in an effort to regain control over her music, after mogul Scooter Braun acquired and sold the rights to them without the artist’s consent.
FURTHER READING
Taylor Swift’s Attorneys Countersue Evermore Theme Park in Utah, Setting Up Competing Rights Claims (Variety)
Taylor Swift To Start Releasing Re-Recorded Music After Back Catalog Was Sold, Hints At Drop Date (Forbes)
Taylor Swift To Re-Record Songs After Music Catalogue Is Sold To Private Equity Fund For $300 Million (Forbes)
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