{"id":413906,"date":"2026-04-27T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/413906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:14:09","slug":"taylor-swift-is-filing-for-trademarks-to-combat-ai-can-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/413906\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift Is Filing for Trademarks to Combat AI. Can It Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTaylor Swift<\/a> is looking to add to her portfolio of trademarks, a legal move that appears to be aimed at pushing back against unauthorized artificial intelligence productions.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo of the trademark applications, filed on Friday, seek protection of her voice. They feature clips of her saying \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor Swift\u201d and \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor.\u201d A third, meant to combat AI images created on the internet using AI, features a photograph of the singer holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-colored bodysuit with silver boots.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trademarks represent a new avenue celebrities are pursuing to challenge AI companies and users simulating their likenesses and voices without permission. Earlier this year, Matthew McConaughey had several trademark applications approved, including audio of him saying \u201cAlright, alright, alright,\u201d his iconic line from the movie Dazed and Confused and another that shows him standing on a porch. <\/p>\n

\n\tA patchwork of right of publicity laws are meant to protect celebrities from having their brands stolen to advertise products. Several states, however, don\u2019t maintain such laws, making enforcement difficult.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the trademarks, Swift and McConaughey likely hope that the specter of federal lawsuits will deter misuse. For Swift, she can hypothetically argue that AI creations using her voice and image violate her intellectual property rights. <\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the theory remains untested. Although trademarks protect against similar reproductions that can confuse consumers, they\u2019re not meant to be utilized as a catch-all protecting every feature of a performer\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t believe it will be very effective, except for in rare circumstances,\u201d says Matthew Asbell, an intellectual property lawyer at Lippes Mathias. \u201cThe voice trademarks are particularly limited to what Taylor is actually staying: \u2018Hey, it\u2019s Taylor\u2019 or \u2018Hey, it\u2019s Taylor Swift.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe upshot: the phrase featured in Swift\u2019s trademark bid is more important than the singer\u2019s voice. \u201cSo, unless another party uses [her] voice to say the same thing or something very similar, it should be difficult to use these trademarks to enforce against them,\u201d Asbell adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe same problem applies to Swift\u2019s application covering her photograph. Any infringing reproduction would have to utilize a similar image for the trademark, if it\u2019s granted, to have much use.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s also the issue of whether the phrase, \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor,\u201d is well-known enough to rise to the level of protection. The singer is megafamous, but the line doesn\u2019t appear to be.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, an AI-generated version of Swift\u2019s \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia,\u201d entered Spotify\u2019s Top 50 chart in Brazil before being removed. The track used AI to blend Swift\u2019s voice with synthetic audio modeled after top Brazilian singers. Even if Swift is granted her most recent trademarks, there are few avenues for creators to challenge AI reproductions across borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift is looking to add to her portfolio of trademarks, a legal move that appears to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,2070,125],"class_list":["post-413906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-taylor-swift","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}