The self-described showgirl Wade (real name Maren Flagg) recently submitted the updated action to a federal court in her native California. Last time around, the straightforward complaint was, in brief, dismissed on technical grounds due to the way the defendants were jointly classified.

However, the action’s current version rather clearly differentiates between each of the parties and their roles in an alleged “coordinated commercial program” centering on The Life of a Showgirl.

Per the legal text, Swift herself “personally selected the name, approved it, promoted it, and shares in the revenue it generates.” Her TAS Rights Management company, for its part, “owns and licenses the mark” – plus around 175 others.

And Universal Music deals in the relevant music while its Bravado subsidiary “sells the branded merchandise,” the suit reiterates. As many know, said merchandise includes more than a few items, some featuring Life of a Showgirl text.

To be sure, said items’ trademark classes extend “well beyond music into ordinary consumer goods that carry no expressive content at all, among them disposable napkins, napkin rings, pot holders, Christmas tree skirts, and shoe laces,” per the plaintiff.

The way Nevada-based Wade tells the story, back in 2014, she started developing said brand with a Las Vegas Weekly column “about her experiences as a working performer.” And eventually, that column evolved into a “live cabaret show,” besides a book, a podcast, social media videos, and more.

(Though one could stretch the definition of “developing” if so inclined, Wade was, in fact, publishing “Confessions of a Showgirl” social posts 12 years ago. She went on to secure a related trademark in 2015.)

“Before the public had ever heard the phrase as the title of anything, then, Defendants had already moved to lock it down as a trademark, first in a foreign registry and then at home. That is not how a party protects the title of a creative work. It is how a party secures a brand,” the text reads.

Bearing as much in mind, the USPTO denied Team Swift’s application because of the “confusingly similar” marks’ overlapping use “in connection with entertainment services involving live musical performances.”

Wade’s Confessions of a Showgirl brand, the complaint notes towards its end, “is the sole trademark under which” the individual “has built her professional identity for more than a decade.”

“It is not one mark among hundreds. It is the only one she has. The continued erosion of that mark threatens the entirety of Plaintiff’s brand,” the text sums up.

With that, the plaintiff is seeking an order requiring Swift, Universal Music, and their fellow defendants “to cease and permanently discontinue all use” of the allegedly confusing mark.

Even at this early (amended-suit) stage, we aren’t without indications of the defendants’ likely response. Previously, Swift’s counsel fired back against the “absurd” claims and threatened legal retaliation.