Vegas showgirl sues Taylor Swift over album branding
A lawsuit says Taylor Swift’s album The Life of a Showgirl steals attention from a real life’s life.
Maren Wade says the glittery branding of Swift’s 2025 album comes too close to her Confessions of a Showgirl aesthetic, in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed Monday in California federal court.
That was the title of a column he wrote for the Las Vegas Weekly from 2014 on Sin City’s backstage life, which he turned into a live show that toured nationally.
“Both share the same structure, the same dominant wording, and the same overall business impression,” the lawsuit states.
“Both are used in overlapping markets and are directed to the same consumers.”
Wade is described in the lawsuit, filed under her legal name Maren Flagg, as a “singer, songwriter, comedian and author” and her “Showgirl” brand covers performances, writing and digital media.
Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, released in October, sold four million copies in its first week. The cover shows her in a Las Vegas cabaret outfit, soaked in orange and mint green, her current favorite color scheme.
On Tuesday, the morning after the lawsuit was filed, Swift released her newest video for the album’s track, Elizabeth Taylor, featuring archival footage of the Hollywood star who died in 2011.
Wade initially appeared to embrace Swift’s use of the showgirl image, sharing Swift’s music, album-related hashtags, and Instagram posts using the mint green color scheme. But Wade’s social media presence has gone quiet in recent months.
Defendants in the lawsuit include the company that manages Swift’s trademarks, record label and sales arm.
The lawsuit states that the album, its promotion, and the products surrounding it caused “textbook reverse confusion: a junior user’s heavy commercial presence drowns out the veteran user’s brand until consumers begin to assume the original is a knockoff. Within weeks, Defendants threatened to swallow up what Plaintiffs had spent twelve years building.”
A representative for Swift declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Wade and his lawyer say the existence and trademark of Confessions of a Showgirl won’t go unnoticed by Swift’s team.
The lawsuit states that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant trademark registration to Life of a Showgirl due to potential confusion with an existing trademark.
“The defendants were therefore given effective notice that the name they chose could be confused with a sign already belonging to someone,” the lawsuit states.
“Yet they continued to use it.”
A letter published by the office in early March states that the application was put on hold due to possible confusion with another pending trademark previously filed by a third party for the perfume in the name “Showgirl.” It also cited the Possibility of Confusion Denial based on the existing “Confessions” trademark.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction permanently banning Swift and her companies from using the Life of a Showgirl name and images, and the payment of monetary damages to be determined at trial, including profits attributable to use of the mark.
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