Last Friday, she filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office, along with two audio clips of her voice and a photograph.
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Pop singer Taylor Swift has filed a trademark for her voice and body image. Last Friday, she filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office, along with two audio clips and a photo of her voice.
Recently, with the help of AI (artificial intelligence), deepfake videos and audio have been misused to create various videos that look similar to the singer's voice and face, Swift has filed a trademark to protect her privacy.
"The purpose of this registration is to protect the singer's voice and body image," a trademark lawyer said, "so that those who misuse the voice and image of a famous person and create deepfake videos and audio through AI can be legally stopped." But singer Swift did not immediately respond to the trademark registration. Neither her spokesperson nor her lawyer have said anything. Taylor's rights management company, TAS Rights Management Company, has filed a trademark, claiming that the singer herself owns the voice and cover.
In the first audio clip, Swift registered her own voice for a trademark, saying, "Hey, this is Taylor Swift and you can listen to my new album, 'The Life of a Sogirl' on Amazon Music as you wish." In the second audio clip, she also identified herself as Taylor and announced that 'The Life of a Sogirl' would be released on October 3. Similarly, to protect the rights to her 'looks' and 'style', she provided a photo of herself holding a pink guitar on stage.
Recently, there has been an increase in the use of AI-generated deepfake content made using Swift's 'image' and 'voice' to create various false advertisements, political issues, and pornographic video content. During the 2024 presidential election, current President Donald Trump spread rumors by publishing AI-generated photos of singer Swift endorsing his candidacy on his own Truth Social.
Actor Matthew McConaughey also protected his privacy by filing a similar trademark some time ago. The issue gained attention after he filed a trademark for his famous phrase ‘All right, all right, all right’ in his name. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last January, he said, ‘In today’s world of AI, we want to create a clear scope that forces us to acknowledge and give credit for our ownership.’
Publishing singer Swift’s registration application on his blog on Monday, trademark lawyer Josh Gerben commented that it was ‘a sensible move to protect Taylor from the risks of AI.’ ‘Current copyright laws are not sufficient to protect celebrities’ rights from unauthorized AI content. That's why trademark applications like this offer a special level of protection," Gerben said. Calling it a new approach to trademarking celebrity voices, he said it has not been used in court yet.
"Creators have long relied on copyright law to protect their songs," Gerben said, "but AI technologies now allow users to directly copy artists' voices and create entirely new content without copying recorded music, which has created a huge problem in the copyright sector. Now trademark registrations like this will help solve that."
Swift already has more than 50 trademarks related to her name, album title, and lyrics.
