ABSTRACT
However accustomed the world is to perceiving Swift as a trailblazer, the Internet exploded again when Swift filed a number of trademark applications with the United States Trademark and Patent Office (‘USPTO’) for phrases from some of her popular song lyrics, having already trademarked her full name and initials ‘T. S.’, as well as the term ‘Swiftie(s)’ — the nickname for her fans. These phrases include ‘nice to meet you, where you been’ and ‘could show you incredible things’ from the song Blank Space and ’cause we never go out of style’ from the song Style. Both of these love songs are from the album 1989, which, in itself, is not only the year of Swift’s birth, but also the subject of another phrase that Swift trademarked: ‘party like it’s 1989’. After releasing her new albums Reputation (2017) and Lover (2019), respectively, Swift continued her ‘trademark play’ by applying for trademarks for phrases including ‘the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now’ from Look What You Made Me Do and the word ‘Lover’ from her latest album. Although not all of her applications succeeded, a sizable number of them did become approved by the USPTO, rendering Swift into perhaps the first musician to trademark lyrics.
This Article zooms in on Taylor Swift’s application of trademark law principles as a way to further brand and commercialize her song lyrics. After exploring relevant trademark law doctrines and applying a legal analysis to Swift’s trademark applications for her song lyrics in Section II, Section III of this Article selectively includes a number of Swift’s love songs as specific case studies to briefly engage in a textual analysis of some of her love song lyrics, as an extension of my legal analysis. Section IV concludes.
Xu, April Xiaoyi, They Belong With Taylor Swift™: Applying Trademark Law and Textual Analysis to the Branding of Love Song Lyrics (August 1, 2020).
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