Taylor Swift Secures Trademarks to Block AI Voice and Image Misuse

Taylor Swift has taken legal action to safeguard her identity amid the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. On Friday, the Grammy-winning artist filed three trademark applications with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

The first two applications are sound trademarks:

• “Hey, It’s Taylor Swift”
• “Hey, It’s Taylor”

The third application is a visual trademark that protects a specific image: “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-colored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multi-colored microphone with purple lights in the background.”

Photo courtesy of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

These filings, first reported by Gerben IP and submitted through TAS Management and the law firm Venable LLP attorney Rebecca Liebowitz, mark a strategic shift in how artists protect their intellectual property. Traditionally, singers have relied on copyright law to shield their recorded music. However, AI technology now enables users to generate entirely new content that mimics an artist’s voice without copying an existing recording.

“By registering specific phrases tied to her voice, Swift could potentially challenge not only identical reproductions, but also imitations that are ‘confusingly similar,’ a key standard in trademark law,” intellectual property attorney Jon Gerben explained in a blog post. “Theoretically, if a lawsuit were to be filed over an AI using Swift’s voice, she could claim that any use of her voice that sounds like the registered trademark violates her trademark rights.”

Gerben added that the image-based filing serves a similar protective purpose:

“By protecting a distinctive visual, down to Swift’s commonly worn jumpsuit and pose, Swift’s team may gain additional grounds to pursue claims against manipulated or AI-generated images that evoke her likeness.”

Notable examples of sound trademarks include Netflix’s “tudum” sound and NBC’s iconic chimes.

Swift’s trademark applications follow a similar move by actor Matthew McConaughey, who told The Wall Street Journal that he aims to “create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.” McConaughey’s trademarks include:

• A seven-second clip of him standing on a porch
• A three-second clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree
• Audio of him saying “Alright, alright, alright,” from his 1993 film Dazed and Confused

“Ultimately, Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey’s recent trademark filings are testing new theories on how trademark law will work in the AI age,” Gerben concluded.

Rebecca Liebowitz did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment regarding Swift’s trademark applications.