Matthew McConaughey Trademarks His Image to Block AI Use

Matthew McConaughey filed multiple trademark applications in 2023 covering his voice, short video clips, and his signature phrase, according to a May 14 report in Variety. Variety lists filings that include a sound mark for the line "Alright, alright, alright," a seven-second clip of him standing on a porch, a three-second clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree, and other brief audiovisual excerpts. Per Variety, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted those trademarks in 2025. The BBC reports that several of the registrations were made by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin Foundation and quotes McConaughey: "My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it's because I approved and signed off on it." The BBC also reports that legal advisers and an academic told the outlet this represents the first time an actor has attempted to use trademark law to address AI misuse. Variety further reports that Taylor Swift filed trademark applications covering her voice and a named photograph on April 24.

Rights-holders are experimenting with a mix of intellectual-property tools to contest unauthorized generative-AI output. Trademark law is engineered to police commercial confusion and to give owners exclusive rights in marks used in commerce; that legal logic differs from copyright, which protects original expression, and from state publicity or right-of-publicity regimes, which address commercial exploitation of persona. Industry observers note that none of these levers map neatly onto the generative-AI problem set, where synthetic audio and imagery can be nonliteral, recombined, or offered free of charge.

Celebrities, music artists, and brands have seen a rise in AI-generated fakes and impersonations. The BBC quotes assistant professor Alina Trapova noting that celebrities often object to unauthorized AI fakes for reputational reasons and as missed licensing opportunities. Using trademark filings to create an explicit permission framework is a novel tactic that could create new enforcement pathways, but its legal effectiveness against purely noncommercial or transformative AI outputs remains untested in court.

Observers should track four things: court challenges that test whether trademarks can block unauthorized generative-AI uses; USPTO guidance or practice changes around persona-related marks; policy or statutory updates in right-of-publicity and copyright law that address synthetic content; and commercial responses from AI platform providers and licensors setting authentication, attribution, and licensing standards. These indicators will determine whether trademark filings become a common tool or remain a niche strategy among high-profile rights-holders.