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Taylor Swift launches countersuit against Evermore Park for allegedly playing her music without a license

‘Love Story’, ‘You Belong with Me’ and ‘Bad Blood’ are cited in the legal filing

Louis Chilton
Thursday 25 February 2021 09:01 GMT
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Taylor Swift Grammy acceptance speech

Pop singer Taylor Swift has launched a countersuit against Utah’s Evermore theme park for allegedly playing her music without a licence.

Evermore Park is currently suing Swift for trademark infringement, following the release of her 2020 album also called Evermore.

According to Rolling Stone, Swift’s trademark and rights team, TAS Rights Management, has accused the park of playing her music “without authorisation or license agreement” in new legal action.

Swift’s countersuit alleges that US performing rights organisation BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc) contacted Evermore Park several times without receiving reply.

Two letters sent by BMI in August and September 2019 are included in the suit, which claims that the theme park only eventually replied after learning of Swift’s imminent countersuit.

Read more: Taylor Swift opens up about breaking her silence on politics

Swift’s songs “Love Story”, “You Belong with Me” and “Bad Blood” are mentioned specifically in the lawsuit.

Per Rolling Stone, one of the letters reads: “In the past, letters have been mailed to your attention along with licenses reflecting your music usage fee of $1,728.67 (USD) for the period of May, 2019 to December, 2019 only.

“This fee does not include all other unlicensed periods in which you were using music.”

In the suit, TAS ask for Evermore to pay damages for every instance of infringement on Swift’s rights.

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