A man who claims to have taught Taylor Swift how to play guitar is reportedly being threatened with legal action by Swift’s team.
Ronnie Cremer claims to have given Swift twice-weekly guitar lessons, helped her record a demo and introduced her to digital recording. He parted ways with the future pop star because, he told NY Daily News in January, her mother acted like “a bull in a china shop”. Cremer bought the domain name ITaughtTaylorSwift.com after the publication of the article, but says he has since been threatened with legal action from Swift’s team.
Cremer told the Daily News that lawyers contacted him on February 6 claiming his website violates the Taylor Swift trademark and suggests sponsorship or endorsement.
Cremer said: “I almost feel like they were trying to bully me a little bit. I’m not giving back the domain name. I mean, Go Daddy sold it to me.”
The actions of Swift’s legal team have come under some scrutiny since a number of trademark applications were filed to control the use of lyrics from her album ‘1989’, a move that resulted in experimental artist Peculate writing a protest song that exclusively used one of the would-be trademarked lyrics. Legal threats were issued to people selling unofficial merchandise on the website Etsy.