Taylor Swift has filed applications to trademark her voice and image, in what appears to be a response to the use of artificial intelligence to produce content without the consent of public figures.
On 24 April, Swift’s company TAS Rights Management filed three trademark applications, according to a report by Variety. Two are sound trademarks, covering Swift saying the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.”
The third seeks to trademark a photograph of Swift on stage during her Eras tour, described in the filing as “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-coloured iridescent bodysuit with silver boots. She is standing on a pink stage in front of a multi-coloured microphone with purple lights in the background.”
Taylor Swift trademarks voice and image in move against AI misuse
The move follows a similar strategy adopted by actor Matthew McConaughey, who trademarked his “All right, all right, all right” catchphrase – drawn from his role in the 1993 film Dazed and Confused – in January of this year, alongside protections against other uses of his voice and image.
“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it,” McConaughey said in a statement at the time. “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”
Swift’s likeness has been used in numerous AI-generated images and deepfakes. In 2024, former US president Donald Trump posted AI-generated images to Truth Social that falsely depicted Swift endorsing him for president. Swift has also been the subject of fake AI-generated sexually explicit imagery.
Swift already holds more than 50 trademarks relating to her name, album titles, and song lyrics. Following the 2014 release of her album 1989, she registered trademarks for “This sick beat” and “We never go out of style”, phrases that appear in the songs Shake It Off and Style respectively.
In 2024, she trademarked “Female Rage: The Musical”, a reference to a segment of her Eras tour in which she performed tracks from her album The Tortured Poets Department.
The latest filings extend that portfolio into new legal territory, testing whether trademark law can serve as a tool for public figures seeking to retain control over AI-generated reproductions of their voice and appearance.
