Taylor Swift is taking legal action against the rising threat of AI misuse heres why the singer has filed trademark applications to protect her identity

Date:
Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:30:09 +0000

Description:
Taylor Swift has filed trademark applications to protect her sound and image, and I think other global artists will follow.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Taylor Swift has filed three trademark applications to protect her sound and image from AI deepfakes It follows Matthew McConaughey's filings from January Her trademarks reflect the industry's increasing concerns, but smaller artists are still feeling the
burn AI interpretations are on the rise, and Taylor Swift is the latest
artist to take a legal stance against the increasing threats.

Acting on behalf of the singer, Swifts company TAS Management filed three trademark applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office on April 24, two of which relate to sound trademarks protecting Swifts voice represented
by the phrases Hey, it's Taylor Swift and Hey, its Taylor which shes known for saying several times during her live performances. The third trademark relates to visual protections, where a photo of her holding a pink guitar, with a black strap and wearing a multi-colored iridescent bodysuit with
silver boots (as described in the application) has been used to represent her image. The filings were first spotted by intellectual property attorney Josh Gerben, but Swifts team has yet to provide a comment on the status of the applications. Article continues below You may like Sony Music removes 135,000 deepfake songs from streaming platforms Here are 3 ways to spot AI-generated music in Spotify, and where you can report it Is AI music just another anti-tech panic?

At the moment, its quite an uncertain time to be a musician, or any public figure in entertainment for that matter, and Swifts latest legal action shows how increasingly concerned artists are becoming for the safeguarding of their identities against AI. But Swift isnt the first one to take action in this way.

Just like musicians, actors have also expressed concerns about losing control over their identities the most recent example being Matthew McConaughey. Earlier this year, McConaughey trademarked himself saying alright, alright, alright (his famous catchphrase from the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused) to implement tighter legal safeguards to make it easier to challenge potential
AI misinterpretations.

If they were to be approved, Swifts trademarks will provide similar protections according to Gerbens blog post . Theoretically, if a lawsuit were to be filed over an AI using Swifts voice, she could claim that any use of
her voice that sounds like the registered trademark violates her trademark rights, he details.

Given her international status, there's no doubt that Swifts trademark requests will be granted to warrant her safety, but not all artists have this privilege, and its the lesser-known musicians that are falling victim to fraudulent AI impersonations. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in
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Back in January, folk singer Murphy Campbell faced every artists worst nightmare when she found a number of songs listed on her Spotify page that
she had recorded, but never released, The Verge reported. She recalled noticing something off about the vocals, and after running songs through multiple AI detectors, she concluded that they were AI-generated using live performance videos of the unreleased songs she uploaded to YouTube .

Although the fraudulent songs no longer appear to be available on platforms such as Apple Music , Campbells concerns are far from relaxed as theres still a number of impersonation profiles with the same name highlighting the responsibility that the best music streaming services have to protect their artists. As a result, Spotify has since rolled out a new approval system for artists that gives them control over what music appears on their profile . This will allow artists to approve and decline music when its submitted to Spotify in their name, helping to filter out any AI impersonations and deepfakes.

Despite the rise of these kinds of safety measures, the uncertainty of AI misuse will remain a worry for those in entertainment until firmer
regulations are clamped down. Now that the biggest pop star in the world has kick-started her stance against AI imitation, it could serve as a catalyst
for an influx of similar filings from other big artists with big reputations to protect. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/taylor-swift-is-taking-legal -action-against-the-rising-threat-of-ai-misuse-heres-why-the-singer-has-filed- trademark-applications-to-protect-her-identity


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