Blonde cartoon stick figure holding a microphone and pointing at a chalkboard with “Taylor’s Version” written in cursive— representing a blog post about the Taylor’s Version word mark trademark registration.

Trademark: Taylor’s Version

First Used: 2021

Registered: 2025

Current Owner: TAS RIGHTS MANAGEMENT, LLC [1]

Trademark Type: traditional trademark; word mark

Primarily Associated With: musical sound recordings [2]

Also A Trademark For: jewelry, notebooks and writing instruments, carrying bags, beverageware, clothing, phone accessories, cloth patches and hair clips, toys, retail store services, and entertainment services in the nature of live musical performances, among many other goods and services [3]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [4]:

Congratulations to Taylor Swift (or TAYLOR SWIFT® if you prefer) on the upcoming release of her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, on October 3, 2025. To celebrate, you guessed it, let’s take a look at her trademark portfolio!

TAYLOR’S VERSION® is a registered trademark. But, the dispute that led to Taylor Swift re-releasing her old albums under the “Taylor’s Version” branding is based in copyright law!

First, a quick primer on copyright law. When it comes to music, copyright protects two separate aspects: the musical composition (the words, melody, sheet music, etc.) and the sound recording (the master recording) [5]. In the music industry, the musical composition is usually owned and controlled by the singer or songwriter, while the sound recording is usually owned and controlled by the label.

Ok, back to Taylor. When she was first bursting onto the scene she signed with Big Machine Records, giving the label ownership of her sound recordings. So for each album she recorded and released under the label, she owned rights to the musical composition but the label owned rights to the sound recordings. In 2019, music executive Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine Records, which included the rights to Swift's first six albums, a move she strongly opposed.

Her solution? Swift began re-recording her albums in 2020, giving her copyright ownership of the new sound recordings (because she owned rights to the musical composition she could legally record new sound recordings). Of course, she named these new albums “Taylor’s Version” to signal her complete ownership. After a few years, the dispute was finally settled, and in 2025 Taylor purchased the copyright rights in her original sound recordings back from Big Machine Records.

Like the rest of her trademark portfolio, Taylor Swift owns trademark registrations for TAYLOR’S VERSION® for a massive variety of goods and services (seriously, good luck trying to find something reasonable that her trademark registrations do not cover). Taylor, we bow down to your Intellectual Property greatness!