LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Taylor Swift is being sued in Los Angeles for trademark infringement by a Las Vegas performer who alleges in federal court that the title of the singer’s chart-topping album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” was lifted from the name of a column and show that’s been connected to the plaintiff for years, according to court papers obtained Tuesday.
The suit, filed Monday by performer Maren Wade, claims Swift was aware of her album title’s similarity to the column “Confessions of a Showgirl,” which Wade first penned for the Las Vegas Weekly in 2014 and later adapted into a live show and book by the same name.
The lawsuit naming Swift and Santa Monica-based UMG Recordings as defendants contends Wade registered the “Confessions of a Showgirl” title with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2015. Ten years later, Swift and affiliated companies adopted the name “The Life of a Showgirl” as the title of her 12th studio album, the plaintiff said.
“They did not do so quietly,” according to the suit. “Within weeks, the designation was affixed to consumer goods, stamped onto labels, tags, and packaging, and deployed as a source identifier across retail channels — all directed at the same audience plaintiff had spent years cultivating.”
Wade alleges that the patent office refused to register Swift’s application for a “Life of a Showgirl” trademark because it is “confusingly similar” to her own trademarked title, according to the suit filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Swift and associates, the suit says, “were therefore placed on actual notice that their chosen designation was likely to be confused with a mark that already belonged to someone else.”
But the defendants “continued using it anyway … distributing it through retail channels reaching millions of consumers. Plaintiff was never contacted,” the lawsuit maintains.
A representative for Swift could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wade says she has performed “Confessions of a Showgirl” — which deals with her life as a performer in the Las Vegas entertainment industry — across the United States, including at established venues such as New York’s Laurie Beechman Theatre and Myron’s at The Smith Center in Las Vegas. She has appeared on television, earned press coverage in national publications, and expanded the “Confessions” brand into a book, a podcast, and video content, the suit states.
Upon release in October 2025, Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and scored the largest domestic sales ever for an album in its first week, according to Billboard.
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