Taylor Swift Trademarks Voice Phrases to Fight AI Copies
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- TAS Rights Management filed trademark applications last week on behalf of Taylor Swift for the spoken phrases "Hey, it's Taylor Swift" and "Hey, it's Taylor," along with a photo of Swift on stage holding a pink guitar in a multi-colored iridescent bodysuit with silver boots.
- The audio specimens include Swift promoting her latest album, "The Life of a Showgirl," on Amazon Music Unlimited, embedded in a longer promotional message rather than used in isolation.
- Universal Music Group illustrated the limits of copyright law by issuing takedown requests for an AI-generated Drake song, citing only the Metro Boomin producer tag — because copyrights protect songs, not voices, forcing legal teams to get creative against AI mimicry.
- IP attorney Josh Gerben argues trademarks could let Swift challenge not just identical reproductions but imitations that are "confusingly similar," potentially filling a gap copyright cannot.
- Northeastern University law professor Alexandra Roberts is "skeptical" the audio clip qualifies as a soundmark, noting that traditional soundmarks like the NBC chimes or MGM lion roar play in isolation, not as part of a longer message — and warned the USPTO may issue preliminary refusals.
- Matthew McConaughey took a similar approach earlier this year, obtaining trademarks for video clips of himself, including his "Alright, alright, alright" catchphrase, to defend against AI misuse.
- Only Tennessee has passed a law specifically addressing AI-generated copies of an artist's voice, and YouTube's deepfake detection tool only covers faces — leaving artists with no specialized federal framework for voice mimicry.
Why it matters: Because copyright protects songs but not voices, artists currently have few legal tools against audio deepfakes — Tennessee's voice-specific AI law is the only one of its kind, and YouTube's deepfake tool only covers faces. Swift's trademark gambit tests whether existing IP law can fill that gap, and a USPTO rejection would confirm what skeptics already argue: that the legal system has no clean answer for voice mimicry yet.
Ask SkimNews
