Taylor Swift Countersues Theme Park for Playing Her Music without Authorisation or License Agreement
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.
One letter stated: “In the past, letters have been mailed to your attention along with licenses reflecting your music usage fee of $1,728.67 (USD) for the period of May, 2019 to December, 2019 only.
“This fee does not include all other unlicensed periods in which you were using music.”
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.