Several Etsy stores have had items taken offline for allegedly violating trademarks owned by the singer.
Products for sale on Etsy featuring Taylor Swift lyrics have been taken offline after the singer's lawyers threatened sellers with legal action.
Getty Images for TAS / Andreas Rentz
The news comes a week after it emerged that lawyers acting for Swift had applied for various phrases from her chart-topping 1989 album to become registered trademarks, including "this sick beat".
Those applications are still pending, but Swift already owns a long list of trademarks relating to logos and lyrics, meaning that anyone who makes and sells goods featuring those phrases and lyrics could receive a legal challenge.
And BuzzFeed News has learned that this has indeed been happening and that several Etsy stores have received cease and desist letters.
We originally made the item for fun, we love Taylor and we had friends that love Taylor. We never intended for it to be a profit making item. The cost of the item covered shipping costs, and production costs with very little left over.
When we got the e-mail that the trademark infringement occurred, we were pretty shocked because while our item was popular we didn't feel as if it had become popular enough to cause harm to Taylor Swift's empire. We were shocked. And we were scared. We didn't even make enough money for a lawyer and this had seemed like such a harmless and fun idea.
That same day, we saw that Taylor was attempting to trademark a variety of phrases and trying to get them blocked from being sold. After seeing that, we grew a little angry and felt targeted by her camp. It didn't seem like much of a coincidence anymore.
Fans like to see themselves as part of the artist's story, however small. They want to contribute and be creative and have fun. These free, loving, creative minds are being stopped by the very artists who have inspired them.
Obviously an artist has a right to their art and people should respect that. But at the same time most people, like us, are trying to be respectful and contribute to the excitement that the artist brings into our lives.
When that is taken away, it leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouths. It feels as though we don't matter, that our ideas and thoughts and creations never belonged to us in the first place. No matter how hard we worked. And for other fans who make art, I'm afraid that this is going to be the future.
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