Last week, Taylor Swift was sued for allegedly copying part of author Teresa La Dart’s self-published books of poems titled Lovers for her album and accompanying book of the same name. Find out what lawyers think of this lawsuit and whether it will succeed or not.
In 2019, Swift released her album Lover and alongside it, a book was released. La Dart claims that this book copied “a number of creative elements” from her book that was published in 2010. So what did Taylor Swift allegedly copy according to Da Lart?
Teresa La Tart Accuses Taylor Swift of Copying Her Work
The “pastel pinks and blues” on the cover, the title, and the photograph used has the same downward pose according to the lawsuit. On top of that, Taylor Swift is also accused of copying the same format of “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components.” And lastly, Swift’s inner book design has “interspersed photographs and writings” that La Tart claims were also copied.
La Tart believes that she is owes in “excess of one million dollars” in damages according to her lawyer. Her attorney wrote “The defendants to this day have neither sought, nor obtained, a license from TLD of her creative design element rights, nor have they given any credit to TLD … let alone provided any monetary payments.”
Legal Experts Don’t Think This Lawsuit Will Prevail
Legal experts seem to agree that this lawsuit will not go far. “As far as I can tell, she isn’t claiming that any of the actual content is similar,” wrote Aaron Moss, a litigator at Greenberg Glusker who covers and writes about copyright lawsuits. “The idea of memorializing a series of recollections over a number of years by interspersing ‘written and pictorial components’ isn’t protectable,” Moss goes on to say. “If it were, this person might as well sue anyone who’s ever written a diary or made a scrap book.”
The last statement by Moss covers this lawsuit up perfectly. Formats cannot be copyrighted and a picture book idea is a simple format that doesn’t belong to any one person. I believe that the issue was with the title and color theme being similar and they wanted to add more stuff to the lawsuit to see what else may stick.
On top of the format and cover art, the title being similar may have also been a major reason as to why La Tart decided to sue. But again, the title Lover can be used by anyone as it is a simple word that cannot be trademarked.
“This Lawsuit Should Be Thrown Out”
Moss goes onto to say, “This lawsuit should be thrown out on a motion to dismiss, if the plaintiff’s lawyer doesn’t think better of it and voluntarily withdraw the complaint first.”
Who do you think is in the right? Do you agree with what Aaron Moss said? Let us know in the comments below!