I am informed by a close friend (despite his proclivity for morning news) that there is currently a lot of to-do on the trashy Australian morning TV news programs about Taylor Swift’s use of trade mark registrations to take down deep fakes created by AI. He suggested I weigh in.
Taylor registers her IP to the company TAS Rights Management, LLC. Through that company, Taylor currently has 13 pending trade mark applications in the US. Most of these are word marks, but one is an illustration drawing of Taylor holding a pink guitar and two are sensory marks (i.e. applications to register the spoken words “Hey, it’s Taylor” and “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift”). These were filed in the US on 24 April 2026. Under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Taylor can file these applications in Australia at any time up to 24 October 2026, claiming the 24 April 2026 filing date for the US trade mark applications as her Australian priority date. As such, we should expect to see these marks showing up on the Australian trade marks database sometime between now and 24 October 2026.
Despite the hullabaloo on morning news, there is not much to it. What seems more interesting, is the different approaches that the various celebrities have taken. Taylor is often talked about as being quite savvy with respect to IP protection, but actually Matthew McConaughey has been the pioneer with respect to taking steps to fend off deep fakes created using AI.
Through his IP protection company (J.K. Livin Brands, Inc.) Matthew McConaughey has filed one illustration drawing and three sensory marks for sounds (“ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT”, “JUST KEEP LIVIN’, RIGHT?…I MEAN…WHAT ELSE ARE WE GONNA DO?”). This part of his approach is very similar to that adopted by Taylor, except that he often covers class 9 as well as 41, whereas Taylor’s applications are limited to class 41.
But, where Matthew McConnaughey noticeably diverges in his strategy is that he has also filed 4 motion marks. These motion marks show him moving in front of different backgrounds (in his living room and outside).
J.K. Livin Brands, Inc. does not have any pending or registered trade marks in Australia. Clearly Matthew McConaughey does not consider Australia a relevant market to him. So, it seems doubtful that these motion marks will find themselves onto the Australian trade marks database.
But, it begs the question whether we are likely to see an uptick in Australian movement trade mark filings, given this is a seemingly helpful strategy in the attempt to stave off impersonation of celebrities using deep fakes generated by AI.
There are currently only 153 pending and registered movement marks on the Australian trade marks database. Aside from trade mark no. 2553899 (https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/2553899?s=36fc7cd6-3696-41b1-af9f-1fc4992e1012&p=1) none appear to be for the movement of a person, and if you follow the link, and see the person, it’s clearly not an attractive celebrity of the ilk of Taylor Swift or Matthew McConnaughey. So, no change is evident yet, but…will movement marks emerge as a new tool in the arsenal to protect against deep fakes generated by AI? Watch this space.
And if you want to file a movement mark in Australia, contact Hayley Tarr at Tarr Law.
