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Artist Taylor Swift is filing to trademark phrases from her new album, Reputation, according to documents obtained by TMZ.
Phrases being filed for trademark include the line “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now” from her single “Look What You Made Me Do,” as well as the single’s title itself, the publication reports.
According to New, Swift’s team filed the applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The lyrics will be used for merchandise including T-shirts, notebooks, guitar picks, jewelry, bags, cosmetics, and even Christmas Tree decorations.
T-shirts bearing the cover for Reputation as well as other merch related to the album are currently being sold on Swift’s online store. According to New, fans who buy the merch will receive a boost up the priority list for tickets for Swift’s upcoming tour through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program.
Enter Shikari Frontman Rou Reynolds called the Verified Fan program “sickening” and accused Swift of “fleecing her own fans.”
Bots/touts fleece fans by reselling tickets for a higher price. She’s not stopping them, she is replacing them. She is fleecing her own fans
This is profit over people
Commerce over connection
Accumulation over art
A spokesperson for Swift said in response that “If these same tickets were offered on the open market, scalpers would snatch them up and fans would be paying thousands of dollars for them. Scalpers and bots will not take the time to engage in legitimate fan activity. Taylor rewarding her fans for posting selfies, watching YouTube videos and downloading her albums, things her fans are already doing, is a great thing. This is a program that rewards fans for being fans and makes sure they get great tickets at face value,” as reported by NME.
This isn’t the first time Swift applied to trademark phrases from her album. In January 2015, she trademarked the phrases “party like it’s 1989,” “this sick beat,” and other phrases from her album 1989 for merchandise, as Rolling Stone reported. In December 2015, Swift applied once more for trademarks for “swiftmas,” “blank space,” “and I’ll write your name,” “a girl named girl,” and “1989,” USA Today reported.