Following in Matthew McConaughey’s footsteps, singer Taylor Swift has filed trademark applications in the United States for her voice and likeness, in the hope of better protecting herself against AI-generated deepfakes.
Regarding her voice, the applications cover two “sensory trademarks”: audio clips in which Swift recites specific promotional phrases (for Amazon Music and Spotify). However, these recordings do not protect her voice as such, but only these very specific phrases. A deepfake in which her voice says something else would therefore not be covered by these trademarks.
Furthermore, in Europe, protecting a voice alone under trademark law poses technical challenges: one must always provide an audio clip combining voice and text, which significantly limits the scope of protection.