Maren Flagg, the performer suing Taylor Swift over the branding of The Life of a Showgirl, has filed an amended complaint in her trademark case against the singer and three co-defendants.
The First Amended Complaint, filed on Tuesday (June 16) in the US District Court for the Central District of California, restructures a lawsuit that Swift‘s lawyers had moved to dismiss in May.
At the center of the case is one question: whether Swift‘s album brand infringes the trademark Flagg has used for her Confessions of a Showgirl stage show since 2014.
Here’s who Flagg is, what her amended complaint argues, the USPTO refusal Flagg is leaning on, and what happens next…
Who is Maren Flagg, and why is she suing Taylor Swift?
Maren Flagg, who performs as Maren Wade, is a singer, songwriter, comedian, and author based in Nevada.
She began using the Confessions of a Showgirl name in 2014, starting with a column in Las Vegas Weekly about her life as a working performer, according to the complaint.
The column became a live cabaret show, which she has performed at venues including the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York City and Myron’s at The Smith Center in Las Vegas.
She owns US Trademark Registration No. 4800625 for Confessions of a Showgirl in connection with entertainment services, registered in 2015, which she says is incontestable under federal law.
Flagg has extended the brand into a book, a podcast, and online video, and most recently performed the show in January 2026, the complaint states.
Flagg first sued Swift over the branding on March 30 in the same California court, naming the same four defendants.
Her original complaint alleged that Swift‘s commercial presence threatens to drown out her senior mark “until consumers begin to assume that the original is the imitation.”
The suit followed the October 2025 release of The Life of a Showgirl, Swift‘s twelfth studio album.
Swift‘s lawyers moved to dismiss that complaint in May, arguing it failed to state a viable claim and that the court lacked jurisdiction over Swift and TAS.
The June 16 amended complaint is Flagg‘s response, reframing the case the defendants had asked the court to throw out.
What the amended complaint argues
The amended complaint names four defendants: Swift; her rights-management company, TAS Rights Management; UMG Recordings; and UMG‘s merchandise arm, Bravado International Group Merchandising Services.
It assigns each a separate role, stating that Swift selected, approved, and promoted the designation, that TAS owns and licenses it, that UMG distributes the recordings and related goods, and that Bravado designs, manufactures, and sells the merchandise.
That division of roles responds directly to Swift‘s May motion to dismiss, which argued that the original complaint lumped the defendants together more than 90 times in violation of federal pleading rules.
The amended complaint also adds allegations that each defendant directed its conduct at California, where UMG and Bravado are based.
It alleges that Swift wrote and directed the music video for the album’s lead single, filmed it at the Los Angeles Theatre, shot merchandise photography at the same venue, and appeared at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles to promote the release.
The core of Flagg‘s case is that Swift‘s commercial scale threatens to overwhelm her senior mark.
“What Plaintiff had built over twelve years, Defendants threatened to erase in weeks,” Flagg‘s complaint states.
The USPTO refusal Flagg is leaning on
TAS applied to register The Life of a Showgirl as a US trademark on August 11, 2025, claiming priority from an application filed in Jamaica on May 15, 2025, the complaint claims.
That application spanned 14 international classes, covering musical recordings alongside goods such as candles, napkins, and shoe laces, according to the filing.
On November 5, 2025, the USPTO issued a nonfinal Office Action refusing registration in two classes, citing a likelihood of confusion with Flagg‘s Confessions of a Showgirl mark.
The examining attorney found that the two marks share the terms “of a showgirl,” are similar in sound and appearance, and that Swift‘s designation “could be viewed as an extension of” Flagg‘s brand, the complaint states.
Swift‘s lawyers counter that the refusal is nonfinal, covers only two of the application’s 14 classes, and concerns an intent-to-use filing for which no proof of use was submitted.
The application is suspended, and the USPTO has indicated the refusal will be made final once the suspension lifts, according to the filing.
The complaint frames the registration effort as evidence that Swift‘s designation functions as a trademark, not merely as the title of a creative work.
“One does not register expression,” Flagg‘s complaint states. “One registers a trademark.”
What ‘reverse confusion’ means
Flagg‘s case rests on a theory called reverse confusion, which inverts the usual trademark claim.
Rather than a smaller act trading on a famous brand, the complaint argues that Swift‘s commercial scale is so large that consumers come to treat Flagg‘s decade-old brand as the copy.
The complaint draws an analogy to Prince, contending that audiences increasingly perceive Flagg‘s original as a tribute to Swift‘s release.
Swift‘s lawyers reject that framing, arguing that the goods are sold through her own online store, store.taylorswift.com, which the motion says makes it unmistakable whose goods they are.
The Life of a Showgirl sold more than four million US album-equivalent units in its first week, a debut the complaint says the defendants have described as the largest first-week sales total in modern music history.
The album broke the modern-era US first-week sales record on release, surpassing Adele‘s 25, as previously reported by MBW.
By contrast, Confessions of a Showgirl is the only trademark under which Flagg has built her career, the complaint says, while TAS manages more than 175 registrations and applications on Swift‘s behalf.
What Swift’s lawyers say
Swift‘s legal team, at Venable LLP, moved to dismiss the original complaint on May 26, calling the case an attempt “to generate publicity by associating herself with Ms. Swift.”
The motion argued that the premise of the reverse-confusion claim, that consumers would believe Flagg‘s cabaret goods and services are affiliated with Swift, is “absurd.”
Swift‘s lawyers also argue that the phrase sits in a crowded field of similar names, pointing to coexisting marks such as Portrait of a Showgirl, The Last Showgirl, and Confessions of a Vegas Showgirl.
At a May 27 hearing, Swift‘s lawyer J. Douglas Baldridge of Venable argued that the album title is protected by the First Amendment as a “classic expressive work.”
Baldridge, who served as Swift‘s in-house counsel during the Eras Tour, cited the Rogers v. Grimaldi test.
They pointed to a December 2025 ruling in which a judge in the same district denied an injunction sought against Lady Gaga over her use of Mayhem as an album title and on merchandise.
On jurisdiction, the motion stated that Swift is domiciled in Tennessee, contradicting the complaint’s claim that she is a California resident.
In their filing opposing Flagg‘s injunction request, Swift‘s lawyers alleged that she had used The Life of a Showgirl‘s name, artwork, and music to promote her own brand.
The filing said Flagg used Swift‘s trademarks and hashtags such as #thelifeofashowgirl in more than 40 social-media posts after the album was announced.
What happens next
Judge Serena R. Murillo did not rule on Flagg‘s injunction request at the May 27 hearing, and said a written decision would follow.
Murillo framed the central question as whether The Life of a Showgirl, as an expressive work, is shielded from trademark claims under the First Amendment.
Flagg‘s lawyer, Jaymie Parkkinen, argued the title is not shielded because Swift uses it not only for music but as a “branding campaign.”
A hearing on Swift‘s motion to dismiss the original complaint was scheduled for August 5.
The amended complaint, filed on June 16, supersedes the version targeted by that motion, and the defendants will have the chance to respond to the new pleading.
Flagg is seeking an injunction blocking use of The Life of a Showgirl as a trademark, an accounting and disgorgement of profits, damages, and attorneys’ fees.
The dispute lands amid a run of trademark fights involving recording artists, including FKA Twigs, who sued an indie duo over her stage name in March.
