Taylor Swift's trademark filings offer hints, raise questions about her next moves
For the superstar who goes to great lengths to keep her next business moves a secret, one public record might help decipher what's next for Taylor Swift: trademarks.
Since 2007, Swift has applied for federally registered marks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and currently reigns over 171 federally registered or pending applications. She sometimes starts the process early and submits "intent to use" applications before releasing a product. In other instances, she applies for the mark after a product is released.
From the singer's name to albums, concerts, songs, cats and inside jokes, she owns the symbols, words and products related to "Lover," "Meredith, Olivia & Benjamin Swift," "Taylor Swift Midnights" and "Taylor Nation." The term "Swifties"? She registered that, too.
So what applications are still pending?
There's "Swiftmas," "Taylor Swift The Eras Tour," "TTPD" and the singer's final two albums slated to be rerecorded: "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" and "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)."
And then there's the enigmatic marks Swift applied to register in 2024. They're very specific, but the singer-songwriter hasn't made any related announcements. Three to note are "Female Rage: The Musical," "Taylor-Con" and "A Girl Named Girl," a 87-page book she wrote in 2003 from the New Jersey Shore.
'Female Rage: The Musical'
"Trademarks are forms of expression that can be interpreted and understood deeply, similar to how one would analyze and interpret other texts like literature, art or pieces of music," says Sarah Hendy-Jackson, a librarian and educator in San Diego who serves as a liaison between the library community and the patent office.
Swift houses her marks under TAS Rights Management LLC., one of a handful of limited liability companies — including a travel agency and a marketing firm — registered to the mogul in Tennessee.
Hendy-Jackson, 37, and her colleague Craig Wimberly, 30, perused the paperwork for the "Female Rage: The Musical" mark and created a presentation for a summer workshop at the San Diego Central Library with members of the federal patent office present.
"I'm really good at reading the technical stuff in the applications," Hendy-Jackson says. "But I still don't know what any of it means because I don't know her lore, and so that's where Craig comes in."
Wimberly connected the dots. The library assistant remembered that during Swift's acoustic set on the first night of the Eras Tour in Paris she mentioned "Female Rage: The Musical." Two days later, the singer's attorney quietly filed an application. In Swift's thank you post on Instagram to the French capital, the superstar referenced "Female Rage: The Musical" again, catapulting Google searches and fueling TikTok fan theories.
"The curious thing is when you're filing a trademark, it has to be filed in the place that you're gonna do the business," Wimberly says. "So in terms of live theater, she filed 'Female Rage: The Musical' only in the States. She hasn't filed it anywhere else. Whereas with 'A Girl Named Girl,' that is filed internationally as well."
Theories from the two masterminds on what the musical trademark could mean range from merchandise to a movie or Broadway musical. The supporting evidence Wimberly looks at lies in the subclasses of the applications: clothing, music, jewelry, bags, journals, dishware, beverageware and guitar picks. The classifications that stood out in screaming color were Class 9 for "musical sound recordings; series of musical sound recordings; audio recordings featuring music and musical entertainment," and Class 41 for "entertainment services in the nature of live musical performances."
Among the services listed in the "Female Rage: The Musical" application are "video recordings featuring entertainment in the nature of stage performances by a musical artist or entertainer," which is why Wimberly argues it could be the name of a concert film, documentary series or live performance.
Attorney, professor weigh in
"What matters is what you put inside your application," says Jason Lott, managing attorney for Trademarks Customer Outreach at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "So if someone like Taylor Swift wants to protect any of her trademarks for multiple things, her lawyer is going to say in the application, it's this, it's this, it's this."
Although trademarks are legal veils of protection, they must also be used in commerce. Part of the application process is proving to the patent office that you are requesting a mark for a product or service already in use or that you intend to use your mark.
"'Intent to use' is where you haven't used it in commerce," says Joseph Fishman, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. "You're just trying to plant your flag. And then at some point later in the next few months, you'll come back around and actually start using it. But once you have actually used it and received your registration, then you have a trademark."
Applying to register a trademark can be expensive and potential owners must pay for each class in the application. For "Female Rage: The Musical," the application with 10 classes cost $3,500. But Swift has been applying since 2007, three years after moving to Nashville and a year before filing her first business, "Taylor Swift Productions Inc.," with the secretary of state's office.
The average life of a trademark application is 14.1 months. For example, even though "1989 (Taylor's Version)" and "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" came out in 2023, the trademarks did not finally register until the first week of November.
Registered trademarks allow Swift's legal team to unleash cease and desist letters to those trying to sell similar products and services that consumers could think were endorsed by the singer.
Every 10 years, marks must be renewed at $525 per class of goods and services. The registrations can expire or be canceled. In Swift's career, she has abandoned 116 applications and canceled 50 registrations. In 2023, she opted out of many related to her fifth album: "T.S. 1989," "Nice to meet you, where you been?," "Cause We Never Go Out of Style" and "The 1989 World Tour."
"One explanation that I can think of is to save money," Fishman says. "This stuff adds up, and if you're filing renewal fees on this many trademarks, it's a lot of money."
'Taylor-Con'
On Jan. 27 before Swift embarked on the Asian and Australian leg of the Eras Tour, her attorneys filed a trademark application with 13 classes for "Taylor-Con." The $4,550 application was more expansive than the one for "Female Rage: The Musical." It included Class 04 for "candles," Class 024 for "towels; blanket throws; lap blankets" and Class 028 for "stuffed toys; toy glow sticks; toy glow bracelets... Christmas tree ornaments and decorations... toy music boxes; bean bags; snow globes."
Once the application landed in the patent office's inbox, its serial number was assigned to a trademark attorney.
The attorney reviewed the paperwork and, on April 19 (the same day "The Tortured Poets Department" album was released) sent two pieces of correspondence to the singer's attorney. Among requests to clean up language, he stated he had searched the office's database of registered and pending marks and "found no conflicting marks that would bar registration."
He also instructed Swift's team to verify she "has a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce," meaning "Taylor-Con" is not just a vague idea, but there's a real and honest plan to use the trademark.
In September, the patent office published "Taylor-Con" in the Official Gazette, making the application a public record and allowing for an opposition period, typically 30 days, when anyone could argue why the mark shouldn't be registered.
On Oct. 29, the opposition period ended and the patent office granted a notice of allowance giving Swift and her team six months to prove they are using the mark in commerce or file an extension request. Application extensions can be filed up to five times, every six months, and cannot exceed 36 months, according to the patent office's website.
So if extensions were approved, Swift would have until Oct. 29, 2027, to use "Taylor-Con."
'A chain reaction of counter moves'
So what is the plan for "Female Rage: The Musical," "Taylor-Con" and "A Girl Named Girl"?
Will the ideas die out like in 2018 when she abandoned "TayArt," "TayInstruments," "TayPlay Farm" and "TayTour"? Or will they point fans in the direction of future announcements like "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" and "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)"?
And for the record, the patent office sent notices of allowance for those last two trademarks on Aug. 16, 2022, meaning she has to prove she's using "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" and "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)" by Aug. 16, 2025. Her legal team has filed four extensions that have been approved. They can only submit one more six-month extension.
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