Taylor Swift Sued By Utah Theme Park Over ‘Evermore’ Album

A theme park in Utah has sued Taylor Swift over the trademark for her newest album Evermore, released in December.

Evermore Park is an immersive-experience fantasy world theme park in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The park has held a trademark for the “Evermore” brand since 2015, ranging from clothing items to park and entertainment services of live visual and audio performances by an actor. The lawsuit wants to prevent Swift from further using the “Evermore” trademark and pay statutory damages of $2 million per “counterfeit mark per type of goods or services sold.”

The park claimed that since Swift released her ninth album, it created “actual confusion” over the park’s own trademark. On the album’s releases day, traffic on the park’s website spiked 330.4% compared to the day before. One may think the extra website traffic might be a good thing for the park, but they’re not so sure. “Your client’s website traffic has actually increased as a result of the release of Ms. Swift’s recent album, which in turn could only serve to enhance your client’s mark,” said Swift’s counsel in a December 29 letter.

The park believes that Swift’s team shows a “misunderstanding of trademark law.” The park backed this belief by citing Audi v. D’Amato (2004), “The Court finds that the loss sustained by a trademark holder from the unauthorized use of its trademarks is the loss of the trademark holder’s ability to control its reputation. In the context of trademark litigation, grounds for irreparable harm include loss of control of reputation, loss of trade and loss of goodwill, regardless of whether the infringer is putting the mark to a good or favorable use.”

The park also claimed Swift is an actor in her “Willow” music video as the park’s trademark covers live visual and audio performances by an actor. They pointed to the scene in the video where Swift emerged from a hole in a tree, mimicking art the park released.

“Despite her publicly stated concerns for small and struggling artists facing larger and better-funded opponents,” stated the lawsuit. “Ms. Swift now seeks to bury the previously released Evermore albums created by Evermore and misappropriate the EVERMORE Trademark with no compensation to Evermore because the company is facing ‘financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic’ and cannot afford to engage in protracted litigation.”

Swift’s team responded in a statement to Billboard where it citied an Utah Business report finding that the park founder and CEO Ken Bretschneider has had five lawsuits filed against him and the Evermore group. “The true intent of this lawsuit should be obvious,” said Swift’s team.