Taylor Swift Trademarks ‘This Sick Beat’ and Other ‘1989’ Phrases
by Kory Grow
If you want to “Party Like It’s 1989” to “This Sick Beat,” you better ask Taylor Swift’s permission first. The pop star has trademarked those phrases – along with “‘Cause We Never Go Out of Style,” “Could Show You Incredible Things” and “Nice to Meet You, Where You Been?” – with the U.S. government, according to the legal database Justia (via Vox).
2014: The Year in Taylor Swift
The filings prohibit the use of those phrases, which all cull from her 2014 album 1989, from appearing with a license on everything from guitar straps and other accessories to removable tattoos. Some of the more obscure – and likely obligatory – items covered by her trademarks include typewriters, walking sticks, non-medicated toiletries, Christmas stockings, “knitting implements,” pot holders, lanyards, aprons, whalebone, napkin holders and the particularly ominous collection of “whips, harness and saddlery.”
For reference, feel free to cut and paste the special characters ™ and ® for future references to 1989.
In other Swift news, the singer’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were recently hacked, with multiple posts attempting to convince her 51 million followers to follow other Twitter users. The social media service quickly deleted the fake tweets and Swift referenced her own “Shake It Off” with the joke, “Hackers gonna hack hack hack hack hack.”
The singer expressed her concerns of privacy and security last year in her Rolling Stone cover story. When the magazine asked her who she thought might be spying on her, she said it could be anyone. “The janitor who’s being paid by TMZ,” she said. “This is gonna sound like I’m a crazy person — but we don’t even know. I have to stop myself from thinking about how many aspects of technology I don’t understand.”
