Utah’s Evermore Park has filed a federal lawsuit against Taylor Swift claiming the title of her latest album infringes on the theme park’s trademarks.
The park is seeking millions of dollars in damages, according to court documents filed on Tuesday in the US District Court of Utah.
Evermore Park is about a half-hour south of Salt Lake City; is based around the theme of a fantasy European village.
The theme park owners allege that Swift’s album, released in December 2020, has confused visitors and negatively affected the park’s prominence on search engines and that their merchandise designs have also been infringed upon. They are seeking to claim damages as well as their legal costs.
Visitors reportedly asked “whether the Evermore album was the result of a collaboration between Evermore and Taylor Swift; or some other type of relationship” with the park; according to their human resources director.
The album also drove Evermore Park off the first page of Google search results, according to the document.
Taylor Swift’s response
A spokesperson for Swift dismissed the claims in a statement; and said the park was having financial difficulty before her album was released.
“The fact is, this frivolous claim is coming from Ken Bretschneider, founder, and CEO of an experience park and according to Utah Business, ‘As of June 2020, at least five lawsuits have been filed against Bretschneider and the Evermore group by major construction companies like Sunroc, AGC Drywall and Construction, Geneva Rock, Mountain Point Landscaping, EME Mechanical, Kreativ Woodworks, and NFH Distributing (Beehive Brick and Stone).’ The companies claim ‘they are owed between $28,000 and $400,000.’ Utah Business says, ‘he owes millions of dollars in construction, mechanic, and landscaping fees to workers across the valley who have yet to be paid’ … with a collection of more than 20 construction liens on the Evermore property.’ The true intent of this lawsuit should be obvious.”
Evermore, which was released on 10 December; was Swift’s second surprise album of 2020 and was described as a “sister album” to Folklore; which came out in July.