Reverse confusion produces a kind of harm the standard damages formula was never built to measure. There is a framework that fits.
When the Taylor Swift Brand Drowns Out a Smaller One, Trademark Damages Ask the Wrong Question
In November, the USPTO refused Taylor Swift’s application to register The Life of a Showgirl. The mark was confusingly similar, the office wrote, to one already federally registered: “Confessions of a Showgirl,” owned since 2015 by a Las Vegas performer named Maren Wade. Wade had built her brand under that name for 12 years. A column in Las Vegas Weekly, a podcast, a touring cabaret. Swift’s merchandise operation continued anyway.
By
Allen Adamson
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