Celebrities including Taylor Swift, Matthew McConaughey and Jeremy Clarkson have filed or secured trademark registrations that cover short voice clips, motion marks and images, reporting an attempt to use trademark law to limit AI-driven impersonations (The Conversation; Gallium Law; GMLaw; RennerOtto). According to Gallium Law and RennerOtto, Swift filed three USPTO applications in late April 2026, two sound marks and one visual mark, and GMLaw and GMLaw-affiliated reporting state McConaughey holds multiple federal registrations covering vocal phrases and motion marks. Legal commentators and law-firm writeups describe this as a novel, largely untested tactic that repurposes trademark doctrine alongside state right-of-publicity claims (Stradley; RennerOtto). Editorial analysis: This trend reflects practitioners seeking federal, nationwide tools to address cross-jurisdictional harms from generative AI; its efficacy will depend on how courts apply trademark doctrines like consumer confusion and secondary meaning.
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