Teresa La Dart, the author of a book titled “Lover”, has dropped her copyright lawsuit that had claimed Taylor Swift copied several creative elements, including the design, for a companion book for her record.
La Dart sued Swift last year, claiming that “a number of creative elements” from her 2010 book were copied into Swift’s “Lover” book. The lawsuit claimed that Swift had borrowed a number of visual elements from La Dart, including “pastel pinks and blues” and an image of the author “photographed in a downward pose.”
She also claimed a copyright to the book’s overall format, including “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components” and “interspersed photographs and writings.”
However, La Dart filed a motion in Tennessee federal court last week, saying she would permanently drop the case.
The decision to drop the case came after Swift’s lawyers harshly criticized the lawsuit in their last filing, saying it was “legally and factually baseless” and “never should have been filed.”
“This is a lawsuit that never should have been filed,” attorney Doug Baldridge wrote for Swift. “These allegedly-infringing elements, each a generic design format, are not subject to copyright protection. Thus, defendants could not possibly have infringed plaintiff’s copyright.”
Legal experts reportedly told Billboard that there were serious flaws in La Dart’s case, and that she was essentially suing Swift over stock elements that could not be monopolized by any one author: “This person might as well sue anyone who’s ever written a diary or made a scrap book.”
If she had continued to litigate the case and had ultimately lost, the judge may have ordered La Dart to repay Swift’s legal bills.
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