Taylor Swift has applied to trademark her voice and likeness to protect herself against AI-generated content.
The pop star has previously been caught up in fake images created by AI, including images showing her fans supporting Donald Trump’s campaign for president.
On Friday, the 36-year-old submitted three applications in the US to trademark her voice and likeness.
They included an image of herself from the Eras tour, along with two audio clips where she introduced herself while promoting her most recent studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
It comes after the actor Matthew McConaughey said he had trademarked his voice and image to protect himself from any unauthorised use by AI apps.
The trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who first reported the applications, said protecting sound is not a new concept but involving spoken voice through audio clips has not been tested in US courts before.
He said the applications could provide Swift with an “additional layer of protection”.
“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,” he said.
“The image-based filing serves a similar 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.”
Historically, artists in the US would either use copyright law to protect their music or right of publicity laws to protect their likeness or image.
Gerben said AI had “broken that model”. “Now, anyone can spin up a version of an artist’s voice, have it say anything, attach it to anything and distribute it at scale,” he explained.
“That’s where trademarks come in. Trademark law doesn’t just stop identical uses (like copyright law): it stops anything that is confusingly similar to the registered trademark. That’s a much broader right and more powerful tool in an AI world.”
The image submitted by Swift’s team was used to promote her Disney+ docuseries The End Of An Era. It shows the singer in a multi-coloured bodysuit holding a pink guitar.
One of the audio clips featured the star saying: “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” while in the second she says: “Hey, it’s Taylor. My brand new album The Life Of A Showgirl is out on October 3 and you can click to pre-save it so you can listen to it on Spotify.”