Taylor Swift follows actor Matthew McConaughey in taking new legal action that appears to be aimed at protecting her identity in the age of AI.
On Friday, April 24, Swift’s company filed three trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Two involve sound trademarks covering her voice, one for “Hey, I’m Taylor Swift” and one for “Hey, I’m Taylor.”
The third trademark is a visual trademark covering “a photograph of Taylor Swift holding a pink guitar, wearing a black strap, wearing a multicolored iridescent bodysuit and silver boots. She stands on a pink stage in front of a multicolored microphone against a background of purple lights.”
Images of the trademark application documents are below.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The application, filed on behalf of Swift’s TAS Rights Management, was discovered by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben IP. Gerben said her trademark application reflects growing concerns among entertainment industry talent about the potential danger of AI stealing the ability to control an artist’s voice or likeness without their consent.
variety has reached out to Swift’s representatives and Rebecca Leibowitz, a partner at the law firm Venable listed in the trademark application, for comment.
Historically, trademarks were not designed to protect an individual’s public likeness, voice, or personality. But the theory pursued by McConaughey’s legal team is that such trademark protection provides additional legal remedies beyond traditional publicity rights claims to combat AI-generated content that misuses someone’s likeness.
Swift’s likeness has been used without permission in numerous AI fakes, including Meta’s AI chatbot and pornographic images circulating on the internet. Additionally, in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, Donald Trump shared an AI-generated image of the singer that inaccurately suggested Swift supported Trump.
Swift’s trademark application came after McConaughey’s lawyers secured a similar trademark. In 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the actor eight trademarks. These include an audio mark of McConaughey saying, “Okay, okay, okay!” — his memorable line in the 1993 comedy Dazed and Confused — and his audio and video clips.
Lawyers supporting McConaughey’s “trademark himself” strategy believe they will face further legal fire if they challenge AI-generated replicas that attempt to use the actor’s image or likeness without permission. States including New York and California already have right-of-publicity laws that prevent unauthorized commercial use of people’s images and likenesses. However, trademark infringement lawsuits can be filed in federal court, and because these lawsuits apply nationwide, they can be a powerful deterrent to abuse.
In a blog post Monday, Gerben discussed how Swift’s trademark strategy can be used to protect her name, image and likeness rights. (Gerben does not represent any parties involved in the Swift trademark application.)
“Theoretically, if a lawsuit were filed over AI using Swift’s voice, Swift could argue that the use of sounds that sound like trademarks infringes on her trademark rights,” Garven wrote. The singer’s image-based filing “serves a similar purpose. By protecting Swift’s distinctive visuals, from the jumpsuits she often wears to the poses she poses, Swift’s team may have additional grounds to pursue claims against manipulated and AI-generated images that evoke her likeness.”
The “trademark yourself” approach has yet to be fully tested in court regarding AI. In theory, however, actors and artists protected by such trademarks could file takedown complaints against AI Platforms, much like studios enforce copyrights. For example, in December 2025, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, alleging that its Gemini AI platform was being used to illegally generate copies of dozens of its trademarked characters. By the next day, Google had removed the offending video.
“Ultimately, Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey’s recent trademark filings are testing a new theory of how trademark law will work in the age of AI,” Gerven wrote.
Separately, Swift was sued in March by Las Vegas performer Maren Wade, who claims that Swift’s 2025 album “The Life of a Showgirl” infringes on Wade’s decade-old trademark “Confession of a Showgirl.” Last year, the USPT O rejected Swift’s trademark application for “Showgirl Life” for “musical performances and live entertainment services,” citing potential confusion with Wade’s existing “Confessions of a Showgirl” trademark.
