Taylor Swift applies to trademark 'This Sick Beat'
This article is more than 8 years oldStar protects a number of phrases from her 1989 album – so don’t think about using them on non-medicated scalp preparations or wind chimes
Eamonn Forde on the legal implications of Taylor Swift’s trademark
Not content with having the best-selling US album of 2014, Taylor Swift has leapt into action to trademark certain key phrases from the album, to prevent them appearing on unauthorised merchandise.
The legal database Justia notes that she has applied to trademark the phrases:
“Party like it’s 1989”
“This sick beat”
“Cause we never go out of style”
“Could show you incredible things”
“Nice to meet you, where you been?”.
The trademarks won’t just affect the companies selling This Sick Beat T-shirts and stickers online. They’ll also ban the use of the phrases on, among many other things, wind chimes, non-medicated preparations for the care of skin, scalp, body or hair, and cookware.
This isn’t the first time Swift has taken steps to trademark words. Unsurprisingly, her name, signature and initials are copyrighted, but so are the titles of her albums Fearless and Speak Now.
Thought the extent of Swift’s latest trademarking spree is perhaps a little surprising, it is commonplace for musicians to trademark names or phrases closely associated with them, in an attempt to clamp down on unauthorised merchandise. If they fail to act, they leave the path open for other companies to not just use the name, but to trademark it themselves. For instance a company called BBK Tobacco & Foods owns the trademarks for tobacco-related usage of the names Rolling Stones and – a little less desirably – Vanilla Ice.
Some of the trademarks that have been registered appear a little bizarre at first sight. 1D Media Limited, a company set up by One Direction, has trademarked both the band name, 1D and “Our moment” for “Bleaching preparations and other substances, namely, powders, gels, tablets and liquids for laundry use”.
This article was amended on 29 January to correct references to copyrights, which should have been trademarks, and to acknowledge that the trademarks have not yet been granted.
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