Taylor Swift trademarking her voice and likeness points to a new legal frontier in combating AI deepfakes
Publish Date: 2026-05-28 08:42:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
Certainly! Here are the summarized key points from the article using an unordered list:
-
AI-Related Abuse Against Taylor Swift: Swift has faced widespread online misuse involving AI, including fake nudes, AI-generated political messages, and bogus endorsements using her voice and likeness.
-
Legal Move to Protect Identity: In April 2026, Swift’s intellectual property company, TAS Rights Management, filed trademark applications to protect short audio clips of her voice and visual likeness, highlighting a new legal frontier surrounding AI.
-
Difference Between Copyright and Trademark:
- Copyright Law: Mainly addresses whether copyrighted creative works such as songs and books have been illegally copied or reproduced by AI systems.
- Trademark Law: Focuses on preventing AI from misleading consumers into believing that someone has endorsed a product, political message, or cause. Trademarks identify the source of a product or service.
-
AI and Trademark Issues:
- Trademark law is pertinent when AI technology can mimic a person’s voice or image for commercial purposes, potentially deceiving consumers into believing in an endorsement that never occurred.
- The efficacy of trademark law in policing AI-generated replicas of a person’s voice or image for deceptive endorsements is still untested.
-
Publicity Rights: This area of law protects against unauthorized commercial use of someone’s identity. It intersects with the concerns raised by AI technology that can clone voices and images. However, publicity rights are mainly governed by state laws in the U.S., leading to the introduction of the bipartisan NO FAKES Act in 2025 for a national standard.
-
Challenges for Legal Protection:
- Not every imitation made by AI is deceptive. Federal law provides certain protections for parodies, criticisms, and news stories using a celebrity’s likeness.
- Courts will need to draw fine lines to determine what constitutes legitimate use versus illegal impersonation.
-
Emerging AI Law Focus: As AI law develops, it will increasingly need to address not only the protection of creative works but also signals that indicate a person’s endorsement or approval. Swift’s proactive legal steps underscore the evolving challenges associated with AI.
