Born on December 13, 1999, Taylor Swift touts the number 13 as her lucky number. The second sentence on her Website is “I love the number 13.” This love is often memorialized by a henna tattoo on her hand (see below). Taylor Swift tries to sit in a seat in row 13 at award shows. Indeed, Swift claims the number is her lucky charm and has led to numerous wins at these shows. However, “Lucky 13” was not so lucky for Swift on May 20, 2014.
Blue Sphere, Inc. d/b/a Lucky 13 filed a lawsuit in federal court against Taylor Swift and companies associated with her alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition among other claims. Blue Sphere owns the trademark LUCKY 13® in connection with the marketing and sale of various products including clothing, athletic, bags, backpacking, wallets, key chains, and shoes among other things.
The Complaint alleges that on or about March 2013 Taylor Swift partnered with a greeting card company to sell greeting card sweepstakes using the mark. It further alleges Swift’s business empire understands intellectual property and actually enforces its own trademarks. Accordingly, the Complaint continues that, the Swift business empire knew not to attempt to register the mark “Lucky 13“ for apparel because it was already owned by Blue Sphere.
Will 13 now be an unlucky number for songstress Swift? Will Swift write a song about this dispute with Blue Sphere a/k/a Lucy 13 as she has done when she is unlucky at love?