Take All Your Swift Fan Merchandise Off Etsy, NOW

Remember a few weeks ago when Taylor Swift decided to trademark a whole bunch of her 1989 lyrics? Well, it would appear that she intends to enforce those trademarks. According to Buzzfeed, a handful of Etsy sellers have received cease and desist letters from Taylor Swift's lawyers for selling products with her lyrics and likeness on them. Worse yet, these supposed letters were reportedly not hand-written in calligraphy on Paper Source monogrammed stationery by Taylor Swift herself. RUDE!

A few Etsy sellers, who have previously sold Taylor Swift-alluding products in their online boutiques, spoke to BuzzFeed about allegedly being contacted by Swift's legal team. One Etsy store owner, a self-proclaimed fan of the singer, claimed to have received a trademark infringement warning last month about a t-shirt with a Swift lyric they were selling. “We were shocked. And we were scared," The seller told BuzzFeed, "We didn’t even make enough money for a lawyer and this had seemed like such a harmless and fun idea.”

A few weeks ago, Swift trademaked a number of lyrics from her latest album, barring them from being used on unlicensed merchandise. “This sick beat,” “Party like it’s 1989,” and “Nice to meet you, where you been,” are among the list of phrases that qualify as Swift’s intellectual property. Although many of those applications are supposedly still pending, it would appear that plenty of sellers have taken notice.

BuzzFeed has been tracking the dwindling Taylor Swift-alluding gifts available on Etsy in the past few months. In November, the site published a list of nineteen Taylor Swift-related gifts for sale on Etsy. Reportedly, only three of those items remain on sale today. Luckily, you can still buy yourself some "Blank Space" number 2 pencils!

Swift’s representation has yet to comment on the allegations to BuzzFeed, but it will certainly be interesting to see how this story develops. While we can’t confirm anything until there’s more information on the topic, it seems like Tay may be losing some fans over this ordeal. Looking on the bright side, we can be thankful for the fact that her bellybutton remains unlicensed.

Image: Getty Images; ChaChaCovers/ Etsy