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Taylor Swift Battle with Computer Store Owner Rages On, Man Demands Her Lawsuit Be Tossed

Home / The Law / Taylor Swift Battle with Computer Store Owner Rages On, Man Demands Her Lawsuit Be Tossed

By TheBlast Staff on March 19, 2019 at 12:50 AM EDT

The computer store owner battling Taylor Swift in court is questioning why the singer is suing him, despite shutting down the app which is the center of the legal battle.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the store owner, Patrick Lloyd Yves Bénot, is demanding Swift’s countersuit against him be dismissed.

In the court documents, he says Swift has not shown that she suffered any alleged damages as a result of his trademark.

He argues, "To the contrary, Defendants have not been damaged at all. Defendants were undeterred in their wrongful use of Plaintiff’s mark despite Plaintiff’s exclusive rights to the mark and the USPTO specifically informing Defendants of the likelihood of confusion their infringing use would cause.”

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Yves Bénot also points out that "even though Defendants have shut down their infringing App and do not otherwise appear to be wrongfully using or attempting to use Plaintiff’s mark 'SWIFTLIFE' in any manner, Defendants filed counterclaims seeking cancellation of Plaintiff’s trademark, alleging that Plaintiff committed fraud on the USPTO."

He denies all allegations of fraud and demanding his trademark registration not be canceled.

As The Blast first reported, Taylor Swift countersued the computer store after they originally sued her for trademark infringement.

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In her countersuit, Swift claimed Bénot obtained his trademarks by making deceptive statements to the Trademark Office. Swift says the company claimed in their registration docs to be using the name “Swiftlife,” when she claims they were actually using the name “S.L. Swiftlife Computer Services.”

Swift claimed the company never used or intended to use the name “Swiftlife” alone, despite them suing her over it.

The singer demanded the court cancel the computer store’s trademark due to their alleged fraud. She wants them to pay her legal bills too.

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.

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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.

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.

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Taylor Swift
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Getty

Taylor Swift filed docs demanding the lawsuit be dismissed. 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 also claims his trademark does not cover phone apps but is only for computer repair services.

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 judge in the case recently ruled against Swift and allowed the case to move forward, despite the fact she recently shut the app down.

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