A Utah theme park is suing pop star Taylor Swift over the title of her latest album.
The owners of Evermore park in Pleasant Grove, Utah - located between Salt Lake City and Provo - filed suit in United States District County this week against the singer, claiming that Swift's album title, "Evermore," infringed upon the park's trademarked name.
If you have not yet heard of it, Evermore is not a traditional theme park, with a collection of rides and shows in themed lands. It's more a themed experience. You might think of it as a professionally-designed and staged RenFaire. But the best way I could describe Evermore to theme park fans is if you took Knott's Berry Farm's Ghost Town Alive but switched the setting to fairy-tale Europe and made that the entire park. Former Walt Disney Imagineer Josh Shipley headed the park's creative team at its 2018 opening, though he no longer is with the company.
The park's suit details the $37 million that it claims to have spent to establish the Evermore name, including $300,000 to buy the Evermore.com domain name. (I guess some squatter did well on that one!) The suit claims that Swift's application for a trademark of her Evermore album title infringes upon the park's use of the name in branded merchandise and original park music sold and streamed online.
Trademarks are registered for specific classes of use, and most applications claim use in multiple classes. So while it's possible for the same word to be trademarked by multiple registrants, the whole idea of the trademark system is that the same word (or string of words) should not be registered by different parties for the same use.
Documents filed with the suit show that Swift's attorneys countered the park's cease and desist letter by stating that the singer is seeking to register the term "Taylor Swift Evermore Album," not the "Evermore" name in general, and that other businesses also have registered the word "Evermore" for various purposes, without objection from the park. The attorneys said that, if anything, Swift's album has boosted attention to the park, which - like so many attractions around the world - remains closed due to the pandemic.
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one is overrated, the other a park that doesn't interest me (but I hope does well and actually prevails)
So I guess the court case will be called "The Battle of Evermore" while John Bonham rolls over in his grave.
This is definitely a cash grab from Evermore park. I have kept up with them and they just got done laying off a ton of people and they are on the verge of bankruptcy.
$37 million to establish the Evermore name and the only time I ever heard about them was on a business trip to Utah? They deserve a refund!
Remember, it is possible for two businesses to own the same or similar marks (e.g., Delta Airlines and Delta Faucets). However, if the business operate in overlapping markets and have similar names, there are a series of factors we must consider to determine who has priority
They have no case....
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Nevermore