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Taylor Swift Legal Battle Over 'Swift Life' to Continue Despite Her Shutting the App Down

Home / The Law / Taylor Swift Legal Battle Over 'Swift Life' to Continue Despite Her Shutting the App Down

By TheBlast Staff on January 23, 2019 at 2:47 AM EST

Taylor Swift failed in her attempt to get a lawsuit over her "Swift Life" app dismissed, despite the fact she announced the app will cease to exist in the coming days.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, a hearing was held in New York court recently where a judge denied Swift’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit against her.

The judge also denied the motion from the small business owner suing her for a temporary injunction against Swift's app, which could be due to her recent announcement that she is shutting down the entire app on February 1.

Swift was ordered to file her answer to the lawsuit within 30 days.

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As The Blast previously reported, the singer was sued by Patrick Lloyd Yves Bénot, owner (and sole employee) of a company named SwiftLife, which does computer consulting services in New York.

Bénot said SwiftLife Computer Services was launched in 2007 and claims he trademarked the name SwiftLife in 2008.

But in December 2017, Bénot claims Swift launched her app, “The Swift Life,” which he claims infringes on his business. He says his company used to show up at the top of Google when you searched for “SwiftLife,” but now he shows up much further down.

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Mega

He claims he has been flooded by emails from Swift fans who have confused his company with her app. The man sued seeking damages for Swift’s alleged trademark infringement.

Taylor Swift filed docs requesting the lawsuit should be thrown out of court. The singer argued, “Plaintiff, a one-man computer repair company in Wantaugh L.I., has brought the wrong claims in the wrong venue, many of them against the wrong Defendants."

Swift claimed the man failed to reach out to her people to inform them of their alleged infringement before suing her, which is required by law. She claims his trademark does not cover phone apps but only for computer repair services.

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The singer says nobody is confusing the computer shop and her phone app, saying they both work in different fields and market to entirely different consumers. She says the stuff she puts on her app in no way relates to computer services.

The case is ongoing.

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Taylor Swift

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