Taylor Swift Seeks Emblems for Her Voice and Picture to Battle AI Fakes – Decrypt

Taylor Swift is shifting to guard her voice and picture from misuse by synthetic intelligence via a brand new authorized technique, in accordance with a report from Selection.

On Friday, Swift’s firm, TAS Rights Administration, filed three trademark functions with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace. Two are sound emblems masking the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.” The third is a visible trademark masking a selected picture of Swift acting on stage.

The filings come after AI-generated fakes have repeatedly focused Swift.

“Very broadly, emblems can be utilized to guard distinctive sounds and visuals and the identify, picture, and likeness of a person insofar because it’s used along with items or companies, that means that Taylor Swift’s use of trademark regulation right here is pretty regular,” Kirk Sigmon, founding accomplice at IP and Know-how regulation agency KellDann Legislation, advised Decrypt.

“The distinctive factor right here is the use to guard towards AI misuse. Pragmatically, these efforts is likely to be helpful to guard herself towards misuse from different identifiable actors, similar to corporations utilizing AI to falsely counsel she endorses a services or products,” he stated.

In 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump shared fabricated photographs on Reality Social suggesting Swift and her followers supported his presidential marketing campaign. The incident led to Swift publicly endorsing Kamala Harris for president. In 2025, Elon Musk’s xAI confronted backlash after Grok generated nude photographs of Swift regardless of the corporate’s guidelines banning pornographic depictions of actual individuals.

Nonetheless, Sigmon stated, imposing these rights on-line could show tougher in follow.

“It is likely to be surprisingly tough for her to implement her rights towards AI misuse on the web writ giant, as a result of these creating salacious content material along with her picture are seemingly doing so anonymously, making them more durable to trace down,” Sigmon stated.

Swift’s transfer follows the same motion by actor Matthew McConaughey, who secured emblems from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace in January, together with protections for his signature phrase “alright, alright, alright” from the film “Dazed and Confused.”

Whereas trademark regulation has thus far not been used to guard an individual’s basic likeness, voice, or persona in courtroom, authorized consultants say the filings replicate rising concern within the leisure trade over AI instruments able to replicating artists with out consent. Nonetheless, Swift’s stage of movie star could show to be her best asset in getting the trademark permitted.

“Taylor Swift may be very recognizable in some ways, together with however not restricted to her voice and general picture,” Sigmon stated. “One may quibble concerning the quantity of distinctiveness she may argue, however that is not more likely to outright stop her from a trademark. It is also seemingly she’ll have a straightforward time displaying that her [name, image, and likeness] is related to or service—as an illustration, her music, fan items, and so on.”