Taylor Swift is always busy, and these days s he’s trying to plan a wedding. But that doesn’t mean the world stops. No, things keep happening, and not all of those things are necessarily good. Case in point, the singer’s ongoing trademark war with real-life Las Vegas showgirl Maren Wade.
It’s been an eventful few days for the dispute, with Wade requesting an immediate ban on album-related merch sales and Swift’s lawyers arguing that doing so defied “common sense” and would trample Swift’s right to free speech. Lawyers for the superstar also argued that Swift’s album, The Life of a Showgirl, did not infringe on Wade’s “Confessions of a Showgirl” trademark, as it was “absolutely undisputed” that the album is an expressive work entitled to legal protections.
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“This is the rare and special circumstance of an album — a classic expressive work,” J. Douglas Baldridge argued. “That’s why the First Amendment applies here. That’s why you can’t get a preliminary injunction.”
Not just that, she said that Wade would have to prove that consumers who engage with her shows, her podcast or her books are thinking, “Oh, that’s Ms. Swift,” or “that’s a Swift-sponsored activity” to be able to obtain “the extraordinary remedy she seeks.”
“I don’t see how that could ever happen,” he said. “For them to prevail, it’s not realistic.”
Wade filed a lawsuit against Swift for trademark infringement in March, with her lawyer arguing that Wade owns a federally registered trademark for “Confessions of a Showgirl” and that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office “refused” Swift’s application to register her album title because it was too similar.
“Since 2014, that mark has identified one person. A search for it returned one person. Today, [Wade’s] mark no longer points to [Wade.] When a consumer types her exact registered mark into Google, autocomplete suggests [Swift],” Wade’s lawyer said. “That’s reverse confusion,” he continued. “[Wade] owns the mark, and defendant’s conduct is eroding it. Money cannot fix that.”
Wade has asked for an emergency moratorium on merchandise sales while the case plays out, but a judge has not yet issued a ruling. Lawyers for Swift argued that Wade took advantage of the publicity generated by Swift’s album when it was first released to draw attention to her brand.
All of this comes after speculation about what prenup Swift and her soon-to-be-husband, Travis Kelce, could sign has started swirling. Swift’s net worth is somewhere around $1.6 billion. Kelce’s, meanwhile, is around $70 million. That’s a big difference.
In a May 2026 interview with Page Six, Sarah Luetto, a partner at Blank Rome’s Matrimonial & Family Law Group in Los Angeles, said it’s unlikely the two will merge assets. “Given the complexities of their respective estates—and the lengths Swift has gone to in order to buy back her masters and protect her music catalog—it is likely that any prenuptial agreement would keep their respective estates entirely separate, regardless of any efforts made by either party to enhance the other’s estate during the marriage.”
