TAS Rights Management, the company that handles the rights for Taylor Swift’s music and other trademarks, has filed a lawsuit against the Evermore theme park in Utah.
The suit comes several weeks after Evermore filed its own lawsuit against Swift, accusing her of trademark infringement over her album of the same name and related merchandise. The Evermore suit claimed Evermore, the album, caused “actual confusion” that affected the park’s online presence negatively, along with infringing on its marketing and merchandise.
At the time, attorneys for Swift called the claims “frivolous,” and in the new lawsuit from TAS, the company claims Evermore was regularly engaged in copyright infringement itself. The suit alleges that three Swift songs — “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” and “Bad Blood” — were regularly used in performances at the park without a proper license.
A representative for Swift wasn’t immediately available to comment, while Evermore theme park did not immediately return a request for comment.
The new TAS suit, which was obtained by Rolling Stone, states that along with allegedly using the three songs without proper licenses, Evermore repeatedly ignored messages from BMI, the performance rights organization, regarding the matter. The suit claims that Evermore “blatantly ignored the numerous notices from BMI and opted instead to continue to benefit from the free and unauthorized public performance of [the songs], despite actual knowledge of the liability and substantial penalties imposed by the Copyright Act to protect artists.”
It goes on to suggest that Evermore and its CEO, Ken Bretschneider, only reached out to BMI “seeking a retroactive license that would cover all performances” from 2018 through 2021 after he learned that the TAS Rights Management suit was imminent.
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