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.

7 minute read June 01, 2026 at 12:07 AM
By
Allen Adamson
When the Taylor Swift Brand Drowns Out a Smaller One, Trademark Damages Ask the Wrong Question

Reverse confusion produces a kind of harm the standard damages formula was never built to measure. There is a framework that fits.

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