Taylor Swift Files to Trademark Voice, Image to Protect Her Likeness From AI Deepfakes: Report

Musician Taylor Swift has reportedly filed to trademark her voice and image. As per reports, the move comes amid rising artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes that, in particular, have affected celebrities and public figures. The pop superstar is said to have filed applications to trademark two samples of her audio and an image of her performing on the stage during her Eras tour. The application is currently in the review period, and the US government body will have to decide if the audio sample qualifies for trademark.

Taylor Swift Moves to Trademark Her Likeness

According to Reuters, the pop superstar filed separate applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) on Friday via her TAS Rights Management, which has already filed more than 300 trademark applications in just the US. The filed applications are said to include two voice samples and one image.

In the first audio clip, Swift reportedly says, “Hey, it's Taylor Swift, and ​you can listen to my new album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,' on demand on Amazon Music Unlimited. The second clip reportedly says, “Hey, it's Taylor. My brand new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl' is out on October 3, and you can click to presave it so you can listen to it on Spotify."

Finally, the image she has filed for trademark is said to be taken from the recent Eras Tour, where she can be seen holding a pink guitar with a black strap, wearing a multicoloured outfit and boots with silver accents. Trademark lawyer Josh Gerben said in a blog post that Swift likely went for a trademark, since copyright does not protect voice or likeness as it is not considered a "work of authorship" fixed in a tangible medium.

In the US, the “Right of Publicity” law offers some protection from unauthorised use of likeness; however, trademarks provide the strongest protection and cover a wider spectrum. Since AI learns from the audio clips and images, and can reproduce them in unique content, standard copyright protection is insufficient.

To give an example, Swift's song “The Fate of Ophelia” can be copyrighted, protecting her from unauthorised use of the music, lyrics, or the original composition. However, if the song is fed to a large language model (LLM), which then uses the voice itself to generate a completely new song, that will not be protected under either the copyright laws in the US or the Right of Publicity laws. But a trademark violation lawsuit can be filed in court for this. Notably, actor Matthew McConaughey successfully filed trademarks for his likeness, including his iconic dialogue from the movie Dazed and Confused, “Alright, alright, alright.”

However, since it is such a new territory, and voice trademarks are very rare, the lawyer highlighted that a strong case might be needed for the court to rule in favour of the defendant.