Taylor Swift challenges Utah’s Evermore Park for using her songs



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Lawyers for Taylor Swift say a Utah theme park is wrong.

Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove sued the singer for trademark infringement on her latest album, “Evermore,” earlier this month. Now, Swift’s legal team, which called the lawsuit “baseless,” are making their own claims that the park wrongly borrowed from Swift.

The whimsical Utah attraction had employees performing its songs regularly – including “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me” and “Bad Blood” – even though the park did not get permission to do so, attorneys for TAS Rights Management argued in the counter-suit filed Monday in federal court in Nashville.

“These illegal musical performances are being marketed as a central attraction of Evermore Park,” the lawsuit says.

He accuses Evermore Park CEO Ken Bretschneider of recently seeking a retroactive licensing deal “in (a) thinly veiled attempt to cover up and cover up” the infringement that had taken place since 2018, when the park opened its doors.

BMI, the performing rights organization, notified the park for several years that the performances were copyright infringement, but the park ignored the notices, according to the lawsuit.

Bretschneider and his attorney, Jared Cherry, did not immediately return the phone messages left on Thursday.

His previous lawsuit against Swift alleges the singer borrowed from the park’s marketing efforts, causing “real confusion” among his customers. And he contends that Swift’s lawyers have ignored previous legal claims, believing the park, financially affected by the pandemic, could not afford to sue.

Swift’s legal team called the allegations “baseless” and said the Utah company had in fact benefited from the association, applauding the album on Twitter upon release.

Swift publicist Tree Paine pointed out that several contractors who had been involved in building the park sued Bretschneider and Evermore for default.

“The true intent of this lawsuit should be obvious,” Paine said in a statement to Deseret News earlier this month.

Evermore Park opened in 2018 to an enthusiastic reception, and generated the buzz as a unique escape. Its trails take visitors through gardens, a crypt and a cemetery, where they meet actors playing the roles of mythical creatures, fortune tellers and pirates.

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