Poof! Taylor Swift, Evermore Theme Park Lawsuits Dropped With No Money Exchanged

from the nevermore dept

Well, that didn't last long. You will recall that in early February a Utah theme park called Evermore filed a very stupid trademark lawsuit against Taylor Swift. At supposed issue was Swift's new album, Evermore, and the associated merchandise for it. The theme park claimed that Swift's album was driving their search engine rankings down, that people would be confused thinking she was somehow connected to the theme park, and that the park also produces some music, putting them in the same competitive marketplace as the singer. Swift's team countersued, alleging that some of the park's actors would sing and perform copyrighted music, including Swift's. It was all, frankly, very dumb.

But merely a month later, the dumbness is gone. Rolling Stone reports that both sides have dropped their lawsuits and reached an agreement, one which does not carry any monetary exchange.

A lawsuit and countersuit between Taylor Swift and Utah fantasy theme park Evermore have both been resolved with the involved parties dropping their respective suits, Rolling Stone has learned.

“As a resolution of both lawsuits, the parties will drop and dismiss their respective suits without monetary settlement,” a spokesperson for Taylor Swift said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

A fitting end, since these suits never should have been filed to begin with. The claims that Evermore made against Swift were ridiculous on their own. But to go after the singer in this manner while the park itself was potentially infringing upon her copyrighted music is hubris in the extreme. The park, which reportedly hasn't been profitable since it was created, surely could have found a better use for its cash reserves than paying a legal team for this kind of litigious adventurism.

On top of that, surely the park is now firmly on Swift's and TAS Management's radar, the latter being her rights management group.

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Filed Under: copyright, evermore, taylor swift, trademark
Companies: evermore


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  • icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 6:19pm

    Wait, what?

    So the lawsuits just…canceled each other out?

    Is that how it worked?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mononymous Tim (profile), 26 Mar 2021 @ 8:24pm

    Money grab FAIL

    Evermore: You used our name!

    Swift: But you used me and my music to promote yourself without paying a dime.

    Evermore: Just kidding!!! Nothing to see here.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Mar 2021 @ 5:02am

    "The park, which reportedly hasn't been profitable since it was created"

    They were just doing the American thing, suing someone with more money to get money.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    TasMot (profile), 27 Mar 2021 @ 7:29am

    But RIAA

    As Swift pointed out, the park is using Copyrighted music. Next thing you know, Evermore (the park not the song) will be getting at least a letter if not in-person visits from the RIAA demanding lots of money. First to say it's needed, and second to add on lots of fines for past transgressions. This money grab may come back to seriously bite them as a big money loss.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    FuckTheRIAA, 28 Mar 2021 @ 12:30pm

    If you can't make a profit, sue.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2021 @ 9:35pm

    Just to signal boost exactly how STUPID the theme park's suit was:

    1. 20 years prior to Ms. Swift even being an itch in her parent's loins, Led Zeppelin released a song titled 'Battle of Evermore', still fairly popular to this day.
    2. Circa the late 90s, game developer Squaresoft released a title for the Super Nintendo entitled Secret of Evermore. Wasn't exactly one of Square's greatest hits, but at the very least it was well publicized at the time, right in the middle of Square's golden age.

    So the word already had multiple, previously existing uses in trademark. To make Evermore's decision even more dumb; both the BoE & SoE feature fantasy themes, including pseudo-medievalism, and SoE was billed as an 'action RPG'. So really not a good choice of trademark disputes for a 'fantasy RPG' theme park to get involved in.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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