Taylor Swift’s Legal Team Calls Showgirl Trademark Suit ‘Absurd’

In late March, former Las Vegas showgirl Maren Flagg — who performs as Maren Wade — filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Taylor Swift in United States District Court in California. Swift’s legal team has now fired back, and they are not mincing words.

Flagg trademarked “Confessions of a Showgirl” in 2015, in connection with a live show and touring production. Her lawsuit claimed that Swift’s album title and her own brand “share the same structure, the same dominant phrase, and the same overall commercial impression.” She also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to bar Swift from continued use of the The Life of a Showgirl brand immediately.

Swift’s attorneys responded in a brief filed on May 6. The response, per Variety, did not leave much room for interpretation.

The Life of a Showgirl

“This Motion, just like Maren Flagg’s lawsuit, should never have been filed. It is simply Ms. Flagg’s latest attempt to use Taylor Swift‘s name and intellectual property to prop up her brand,” Swift’s lawyers wrote.

The filing asserts there is “no chance” of consumer confusion between the two brands, citing the legendary attention to detail of Swift’s devoted fanbase and noting the vast difference between a “small, intimate” cabaret act and Swift’s global stadium performances. Of course, lumping those two things together as competing “entertainment services” was always going to be a tough sell.

The brief also argues that Swift’s album title is protected under the First Amendment, citing Rogers v. Grimaldi and Lost Int’l, LLC v. Germanotta — the latter being the case where a surfboard company sued Lady Gaga over her Mayhem album title.

Swift’s team didn’t stop at defending the album. They counter-argued that Flagg has been using Swift’s music, lyrics, and imagery to promote her own “Confessions of a Showgirl” stage show, and threatened to pursue remedies for the “commercial misuse” of Swift’s intellectual property. The filing notes that Flagg used hashtags including #thelifeofashowgirl, #swifties, #ts12, and #taylornation in posts that also featured the album cover logo and music from The Life of a Showgirl.

Flagg’s attorney Jaymie Parkkinen pushed back in a statement to Rolling Stone: “The federal Trademark Office refused Defendants’ mark, and rather than engage that finding, Defendants argue about, well, almost anything else. We file our response next week.”

The Life of a Showgirl — Swift’s twelfth studio album — was released on October 3, 2025, through Republic Records and is available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. UK fans got the album at 5am BST on release day, with The Official Release Party of a Showgirl film event running at ODEON cinemas across the country from October 3 to 5. No trial date has been set in the trademark case.

We’ll keep you posted on updates about The Life of a Showgirl lawsuit as the case develops.