Taylor Swift has settled her trademark infringement case with the clothing manufacturer behind the brand, Lucky 13, over her distribution of clothing and merchandise bearing the LUCKY 13 trademark. The contentious litigation featured some steamy document requests and fights about Swift’s availability to sit for a deposition.



Since the early 1990’s, Lucky 13 has distributed clothing with an edge. In fact, Lucky 13 claims that Taylor Swift’s videos that profess a love for “fast cars and dangerous men who drive them inappropriately” is Lucky 13’s “exact consumer demographic”. In connection with its merchandise, the company has registered the LUCKY 13 trademark in several classes that include clothing, accessories, and body-piercing rings. In March 2012, 20 years after Lucky 13 started using the trademark, Taylor Swift began distributing clothing bearing the same mark. Swift even partnered with a greeting card company to put the mark on cards. The plaintiff claims that Swift herself owns 60 federal trademark applications and hasn’t attempted to register the LUCKY 13 mark because she knows it would get denied. In May 2014, Lucky 13 sued the musician for trademark infringement and other causes of action.

During the discovery phase of the litigation, that’s when the case got a bit weird. Discovery is the process by which the sides exchange evidence that help establish and defend claims. The *New York Daily News *reported that Lucky 13 issued document production requests for videos and photos in which Swift’s “breasts are at least partially visible”; and it did stop with the top half. The request go on to further request the production of documents in which Swift’s “buttocks are at least partially visible”. The request further ask for the production of documents of Swift “wearing lingerie or attire procured from an adult or sex shop.” Kinky. How this related to the litigation is anyone’s guess.

Still during discovery, when it came time for Swift to be deposed and answer some questions, the case went from weird to contentious. Swift filed motions to postpone the depositions until after her tour wrapped up and Lucky 13 claimed the motion was based upon fabricated assertions of unavailability that deserve judicial censure. The court gave Swift until November to sit for the deposition and not surprisingly that is when the case settled.

Details of the settlement are being kept under wraps but the sides have requested that the court dismiss the action. So either Swift paid some money to get out of the case or agreed to stop using the 13 mark on apparel or both. Either way, those steamy photos of Swift will never have to be produced.

