Taylor Swift's 'Life of a Showgirl' Trademark Fight Puts Album Title on Trial

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl is at the center of a federal trademark fight over who gets to tell a “showgirl” story.

Las Vegas performer Maren Wade, whose legal name is Maren Flagg, has asked a federal judge in Los Angeles to stop Swift from using the title of her 12th studio album. Wade says the phrase is too close to her registered “Confessions of a Showgirl” trademark, which she has used since 2014 for a Las Vegas Weekly column, live performances, writing and digital media.

U.S. District Judge Serena Murillo took the preliminary injunction request under submission after a May hearing.

Wade’s attorney, Jaymie Parkkinen, argued that Swift’s title is not just artistic branding for an album, but a source identifier attached to merchandise including candles, hairbrushes and stuffed toys.

Parkkinen called it a “reverse confusion injury,” describing a situation in which a smaller, earlier trademark user becomes mistaken for the copycat after a larger brand enters the space. “It’s called erasure.”

Wade’s lawsuit says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declined to register Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl trademark because it was confusingly similar to Wade’s mark. The application was paused.

Parkkinen argued that Swift’s album and Wade’s work are related enough because both involve performers “telling the showgirl story.”

Swift’s attorney, J. Douglas Baldridge, argued that the album title is expressive and protected under the First Amendment. The judge, however, focused on whether the title falls under the Rogers test, which can protect the use of trademarks in expressive works if they are artistically relevant and not explicitly misleading.

Murillo called that issue “the real crucible” of her concerns.

Baldridge argued consumers are unlikely to confuse Wade’s smaller cabaret work with Swift’s album and merchandise. He also suggested Wade waited too long to object and tried to connect herself to Swift’s album online.

“I don’t know if you follow Swift, your honor, but ‘era’ is a pretty big word to us,” Baldridge said, referring to Wade’s social media language.

Swift’s website says The Life of a Showgirl had the largest sales week for any album in U.S. music history when it was released October 3, 2025. It became Swift’s 15th No. 1 album and set records for the most No. 1 albums in the 21st century, and by a solo artist.