{"id":233613,"date":"2026-01-14T23:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233613\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:37:11","slug":"matthew-mcconaughey-trademarks-alright-alright-alright-to-protect-against-ai-misuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233613\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey Trademarks ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ to Protect Against AI Misuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMatthew McConaughey<\/a>\u2019s lawyers want you to know that using AI to replicate the actor\u2019s famous catchphrase is not \u201calright, alright, alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorneys for entertainment law firm Yorn Levine representing McConaughey have secured eight trademarks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over the last several months for their client, which they said is aimed at protecting his voice and likeness from unauthorized AI misuse. <\/p>\n

\n\tThose include a sound mark on audio of McConaughey saying, \u201cAlright, alright, alright!\u201d \u2014 his memorable line from the 1993 comedy film \u201cDazed and Confused,\u201d which is closely associated with the actor. Other trademarks include a 7-second video clip of him standing on a porch; a 3-second clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree; and audio of him saying \u201cJust keep livin\u2019, right?\u201d followed by a pause, then \u201cI mean,\u201d followed by another pause, and ending with \u201cWhat are are we gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPer the trademark registration for the \u201cAlright, alright, alright\u201d sound mark: \u201cThe mark consists of a man saying \u2018ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT\u2019, wherein the first syllable of the first two words is at a lower pitch than the second syllable, and the first syllable of the last word is at a higher pitch than the second syllable.\u201d The actor\u2019s lawyers applied for trademark protection on \u201calright, alright, alright\u201d in December 2023 and the USPTO granted approval in December 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tState rights-of-publicity laws already protect actors and other celebrities from having their image or likeness ripped off to sell products. However, the Yorn Levine legal team pursued the novel trademark strategy so McConaughey has standing to sue in U.S. federal courts if need be. They say the trademarks could help deter \u201cmisuse\u201d more broadly, including for AI video that isn\u2019t explicitly selling anything.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know what a court will say in the end. But we have to at least test this,\u201d said Yorn Levine partner and co-founder Kevin Yorn. In addition to representing McConaughey, Yorn reps other top Hollywood actors, including two of the highest box-office grossing actors of all time, Zoe Salda\u00f1a<\/a> and Scarlett Johansson.<\/p>\n

\n\tJonathan Pollack, Yorn Levine of-counsel attorney, added, \u201cIn a world where we\u2019re watching everybody scramble to figure out what to do about AI misuse, we have a tool now to stop someone in their tracks or take them to federal court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawyers said the trademarks for McConaughey also give him protections to develop new opportunities offered by AI technology. McConaughey recently announced a partnership with AI voice company ElevenLabs to replicate a version of his newsletter \u201cLyrics of Livin\u2019\u201d in Spanish with a likeness of his voice<\/a>. McConaughey is an investor in ElevenLabs, as is Yorn through venture-capital firm BroadLight Capital, where he is a co-founder and partner.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe eight trademarks associated with McConaughey are registered to J.K. Livin Brands Inc., based in Sherman Oaks, California, the parent of the actor\u2019s Just Keep Livin apparel business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey\u2019s lawyers want you to know that using AI to replicate the actor\u2019s famous catchphrase is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,6808,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-233613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-matthew-mcconaughey","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}