Taylor Swift Seeks to Trademark her Song Lyrics
Orange County – If you have listened to popular radio recently, it is likely that you have heard one of Taylor Swift’s new songs. The twenty-five year old released a new album last year and has been making headlines ever since.
In addition to her 1989 album topping the charts, Taylor Swift has now turned heads with her efforts trademark her song lyrics. She has submitted a number of trademark applications, most notably for “Party Like It’s 1989” and “This Sick Beat.”
According to the USPTO website, applications for “This Sick Beat” have been filed in several classes including those covering entertainment services, retail services, printed products, music accessories and many others. .
This is not the first time that Taylor Swift has gone to great lengths to protect her intellectual property rights. Last year, she made headlines by removing all of her songs from Spotify. Swift defended this action by claiming that the streaming website was unfair to the artists who were not being fairly reimbursed for their music.
While album sales are decreasing industry wide, financial gains are not the driving force behind her decision to trademark her lyrics. Rather, she claims it is to protect herself from others who are trying to make money off of her work without her knowledge or approval. Swift stated that she values her art, and she is willing to do what is necessary to protect it.
While this is one of the few times that an artist has sought protection over music lyrics, trademark protection is not uncommon in the music industry. Even for Swift, her name, initials, and album names are all registered Trademarks. Others in the Hollywood spotlight have also trademarked catch phrases and names, including “That’s Hot” trademark owner Paris Hilton.
So far, it appears as Swift has only sought protection for her lyrics in the United States. It is unknown whether she will seek a more worldwide protection plan covering markets such as Europe.