Taylor Swift and her lawyers have responded to the lawsuit Swift received last year by Writer Teresa La Dart who accused the singer of copying parts from her book of the same name in 2019.
The book in question is called Lover and Swift released the book filled with pictures and accompanying texts alongside her album. La Dart accused Swift of copying the title, using the same pastel pink blues in the cover as well as copying the same pose of the author for the cover. The writer also accuses the singer of copying the same format of pictures accompanied by texts.
Taylor Swift’s Legal Team Responds to Lawsuit
Swift and her lawyers called the lawsuit “legally and factually baseless.” A legal filing submitted to the court last week said “These allegedly-infringing elements, each a generic design format, are not subject to copyright protection. Thus, defendants could not possibly have infringed plaintiff’s copyright”.
This is a response to La Dart’s lawsuit where she said that Swift’s book doesn’t have the typical elements of a book.
“Stylistically”, La Dart’s lawsuit said, “the Swift ‘Lover’ book includes creative elements that are not typical of or present within other published books and – as compared with the La Dart work – leaves an overall impression that the Swift ‘Lover’ book is, again, substantially similar in terms of the above-noted design elements as those within the La Dart work”.
What Will Decide the Outcome of the Lawsuit
The debate will come down to whether or not you can copywrite a format or style of a book. While I do think Taylor Swift should win the lawsuit, there is a chance she may lose parts of the lawsuit. Her work may or may not have borrowed some elements from La Dart’s book and if La Dart’s team can prove that it did, then she may be able to win.
That might be the crux of this legal battle and Swift’s team seems to know it too. In their response, they said that the “Plaintiff has not identified a single instance where her book of poetry was available for defendants to see and has not alleged that defendants had any awareness of or access to her work prior to this lawsuit”.
I do not like the defense of “You never said where our client may have seen your book.” It may have been at a bookstore or on the internet. If that is their defense, I do not think they will win. It may ultimately come down to whether Swift saw La Dart’s book that was released in 2010.