Last summer, a Mississippi poet and author named Teresa La Dart filed a copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift, claiming that the pop star stole design details of La Dart’s 2010 poetry book Lover and used it for the book accompanying Swift’s 2019 album of the same name. Now, La Dart has permanently dropped her case against Swift, Billboard reports and Pitchfork can confirm. The motion, filed Thursday (July 27) in a Tennessee federal court, was the result of a voluntary dismissal, not a settlement.
In the initial complaint (obtained by Pitchfork), La Dart alleged that Swift’s Lover book—which came with the special edition CD release of her album—copied “a number of creative elements” from the cover of her self-published poetry book. At the time, La Dart’s lawyer claimed that Swift owed her in “excess of one million dollars” in damages as a result.
In detailing the elements Swift allegedly copied from her poetry book, La Dart pointed to the title Lover, as well as covers that use “pastel pinks and blues,” and images of the author “photographed in a downward pose.” La Dart also claimed that Swift infringed upon the format of her book, noting that Swift’s was also “a recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components” that included “interspersed photographs and writings.”
In a filing from March of this year (viewed by Pitchfork), Swift’s attorneys requested a dismissal, referring to La Dart’s allegations as “entirely meritless” and “woefully deficient.”
Pitchfork has reached out to legal representatives for Swift and La Dart for additional information.
