Taylor Swift‘s legal team filed the final trademark registration extension for “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” and “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version)” on Thursday, leading Swifties to mark the date Aug. 16 in red underline.

They’ve checked the applications once. They’ve checked them twice, and that’s the final date by which the “Look What You Made Me Do” singer needs to prove she’s using the marks in commerce or they become abandoned — more on what that means below.

The key to trademark applications is the date the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues a notice of allowance. A notice of allowance means the office has successfully finished the examination process of a trademark intended to be used, but not being used, in commerce. The caveat is Swift’s team has up to three years to provide proof.

Look what you made her do

Trademark registrations start with the filings. When Swift announced “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” on Feb. 11, 2021, her legal team simultaneously submitted paperwork for the remaining five rerecords: “Red (Taylor’s Version),” “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” and “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version).” She filed the paperwork for “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” the day before.

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All the applications were “intent to use,” meaning Swift wanted to start the process to protect her rerecorded projects but she hadn’t started using the trademarks in commerce. For example, she didn’t have any branded coffee mugs, T-shirts or musical recordings, only an intent to use the marks in the future.

“Trademark registrations are like icing on a cake,” says Jason Lott, a USPTO managing attorney. “It’s an added layer of protection. You still have the cake of common law trademark rights, but now you, legally, have extra icing that’s going to help your lawyers.”

History of ‘Taylor’s Version’ trademarks

The rerecorded applications were assigned to trademark attorneys and, one-by-one, made their way through the system. The progression was easier for “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” because the album was out two months after her team filed.

Same for “Red (Taylor’s Version).” She announced it in June 2021, six months after applying, and the album came out in November. Her team submitted specimens proving use in March 2022, and the registration was completed in August 2023.

“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” ran into a speed bump. The examining attorney temporarily suspended the application, saying the mark may have been confusingly similar to other trademarks. After back-and-forth amendments, a notice of allowance was approved on June 23, 2023, more than a month after her announcement in Nashville on the Eras Tour. The album came out on July 7, 2023, and Swift’s team provided evidence to the trademark office by December 2023.

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For “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” the application received a notice of allowance a year before Swift’s Los Angeles announcement on Aug. 16, 2023. Her team filed a six-month extension twice and submitted proof of commerce use in February 2024.

Why Aug. 16 for final two rerecords?

On Aug. 16, 2022, Swift received a notice of allowance for “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” and for “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version).”

Her “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” application includes 10 classes of goods and services. Class 9, for example, refers to a list of goods associated with “musical sound recordings, series of musical sound recordings, audio recordings featuring music and musical entertainment, downloadable music files, etc.”

“She would need to have released those tracks,” Lott mentions.

The onus falls on Swift to provide evidence or “specimens” to the trademark office. So she might submit screenshots of a website where fans can buy her music and merch.

“So what she’s done here is applied to register her mark in many classes,” Lott says. “So she would need to prove, by the end of the notice of allowance period, that she’s using the mark and has acceptable specimens for each class.”

Trademarks vs. copyrights

An important distinction should be made between trademarks and copyrights, because they are sometimes confused for each other. A trademark protects the identity or branding of a good or services — the words, the logos on merchandise or album art — for items to be believed to be produced by an artist. A trademark would not protect the song recordings. Copyright registrations would.

Copyrights protect the music and there are two types for songs: the musical composition (lyrics, sheet music and melody) and the sound recordings (studio recordings or masters).

While artists can preemptively apply for a trademark — through an “intent to use” application — copyright registrations are filed only after creative works are produced. With copyrights, it’s not a matter of getting there first. The office will check that the submitted work meets the legal standards, and the average processing time for a copyright application is roughly two months.

“Once the copyright registration applications are approved, we publish those online as soon as we can,” says Miriam Lord, the associate register of copyrights and director of public information and education for the U.S. Copyright Office. “It is important to note that copyright registration is not mandatory for copyright protection. Copyright exists automatically in an original work of authorship once it is fixed in a tangible medium. However, registration confers substantial benefits, including allowing copyright owners to enforce their exclusive rights and creating a public record of creativity.”

Creators can submit registration requests for unpublished and published works.

What if the two remaining rerecords don’t come out by Aug. 16?

If the singer does not prove her use in commerce by then, the trademarks will be abandoned.

“No one’s really going to know except for her and her lawyers,” Lott says. “I don’t know what her business intent is. Our default is to believe a business owner when they say they have a bona fide intent.”

Swift can refile, which would start the process over again. This has happened with “A Girl Named Girl,” a book she wrote when she was 15 years old.

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Her team applied for the trademark on Dec. 3, 2015. The notice of allowance came on Jan. 3, 2017. Six extensions were approved, and the mark was abandoned. Swift’s team filed for a new registration on the expiration day, Jan. 3, 2020. The registration received a notice of allowance on Sept. 15, 2020, and was abandoned after three years. Like clockwork, her team submitted new paperwork for a new registration on the day the previous mark expired, Sept. 15, 2023. That prompted a third notice of allowance on Oct. 15, 2024, which is set to expire on Oct. 15, 2027.

“The examining attorney will probably see in the system when there’s a second round of an application,” Lott says. “They’ll look at the application and that a person or a company is attempting to get a good or service up and running. But our default is to believe people. Especially when they’re signing a declaration that what they’re submitting is true.”

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