What celebrities, podcasters, and influencers need to know.
Today’s AI tools can generate realistic images and videos, clone voices using just a few seconds of audio, and even mimic speaking or writing styles, including catchphrases and mannerisms. Many of these systems are being trained on publicly available content featuring recognizable faces, voices, and personas, enabling AI-generated output to be distributed and commercialized across platforms at unprecedented speed—often, without the consent of the individual whose identity or person is being replicated.
For actors, podcasters, influencers, and other celebrities, these tools can create significant legal and commercial risks, such as unauthorized endorsements, reputational harm, and intellectual property infringement concerns tied to both the use of proprietary content in AI training and to the resulting AI‑generated outputs.
As a result, traditional right-of-publicity protections are increasingly intersecting with trademark law, contract strategy, and AI governance concerns.
Expanding Beyond Traditional Right-of-Publicity Protections
In light of growing concerns around AI-generated content and digital replication, some public figures are looking beyond traditional right-of-publicity protections and exploring trademark law as an additional layer of protection.
Recent examples include Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey and music artist Taylor Swift.
Earlier this year, McConaughey obtained several federal trademark registrations from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to protect some of his most recognizable catchphrases (including “Alright, alright, alright”), arguing that they serve as source identifiers in connection with entertainment services.[1] His approach to preventing AI’s unauthorized uses of his persona has been hailed as novel because public figures have historically relied upon on right-of-publicity laws to prevent unauthorized commercial use of their names, voices, likenesses, and personas.
More recently, Taylor Swift employed this same strategy to combat unauthorized AI use by filing trademark applications with the USPTO to pursue protection for sound marks featuring her voice, including “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.”[2]
Right of Publicity and Trademark Law: Overlapping but Distinct Protections
The right of publicity is a legal right of an individual to control and profit from commercial uses of their name, image, likeness, voice, or other distinctive aspects of their identity. In practice, these rights are often used by public figures to challenge unauthorized endorsements, advertising, merchandising, or other commercial activity that falsely suggests their affiliation or consent. Publicity-right protections are governed primarily by state law and are particularly robust in jurisdictions such as California.
In contrast, use of trademark law to provide an additional layer of protection is rooted in the federal trademark law, the Lanham Act, which prohibits conduct that is likely to deceive consumers as to the association, sponsorship, or approval of goods or services by another person.[3] Under the Lanham Act, a trademark can be anything that is used in connection with the offering of goods or services in commerce and that primarily functions as a source identifier, such as a name, word, phrase, logo, color, sound, smell or, as mentioned above, a catchphrase.
Courts have, in certain circumstances, applied trademark law to claims involving imitation voices, catchphrases, and other distinctive persona-related elements that may create consumer confusion regarding sponsorship or endorsement. For example, in Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc.[4], the singer, Tom Waits, successfully asserted Lanham Act claims involving an unauthorized imitation of his distinctive gravelly voice in a commercial advertisement for Doritos. Similarly, the notorious fight announcer, Michael Buffer, has long enforced the trademark rights associated with his signature catchphrase, “LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE” in cases where the phrase was used without permission.[5]
AI Voice Cloning and Emerging Litigation Risks
Another area of concern involves the use of AI-generated avatars, chatbots, and voice clones, which can now be created with increasing realism and scale. These applications are raising growing concerns around unauthorized endorsements, misuse of proprietary content in AI training, and commercial exploitation of public figures’ identities.
A recent case, Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc.[6], illustrates how these issues are beginning to surface in litigation. In Lehrman, two voiceover actors alleged the unauthorized use of their voices by Lovo, a company providing AI voice generation services advertised as “a text-to-speech subscription service that allows its clients to generate voice-over narrations at a fraction of the cost of the traditional model.” The plaintiffs argued that Lovo used their voices to train its AI and commercialize AI-generated outputs that closely resembled their voices.
Lovo moved to dismiss the claims; however, applying New York civil law, the court allowed the plaintiffs’ right-of-publicity claims to proceed. Although the court also found that trademark law could apply in the circumstances, it dismissed the plaintiffs’ trademark claims, concluding that the plaintiffs had not sufficiently alleged that their voices functioned as recognizable commercial brands or source identifiers.
Practical Protections in the AI Era
As the Lehrman case illustrates, disputes involving AI-generated personas, voices, and digital identity replication increasingly sit at the intersection of publicity rights, trademark law, contractual protections, and AI governance considerations.
In practice, public figures may have several legal and commercial tools available to address unauthorized AI use of their name, likeness, voice, or persona.
Specifically, unauthorized commercial exploitation may give rise to:
- Right-of-publicity claims under applicable state law
- Trademark infringement claims, provided the voice, phrase, or other personal attribute functions as a recognizable source identifier associated with a public figure’s brand.
- Contractual protections in endorsement, production, and licensing agreements may be used to address issues such as:
- Use of voice, image, likeness, or persona rights for AI training purposes;
- Restrictions on digital replicas or synthetic recreations;
- Scope and duration of AI-related usage rights;
- Approval/explicit consent for synthetic recreations; and
- Future-use limitations relating to AI-generated content.
As AI-generated content becomes more sophisticated and commercially scalable, the economic stakes associated with unauthorized uses of a public figure’s identity will increase. Celebrities, podcasters, influencers, and other public figures may increasingly rely on layered protection strategies involving publicity rights, trademark protections, and AI-specific contractual controls to manage how their identities and personas are used in the marketplace.
Chandana Rao is a member of our New York-based team with nearly 20 years of legal and business experience. She regularly advises her clients on corporate, IP, and commercial matters, including influencer agreements, brand collaborations, MarTech agreements and social media collaborations.
[1] Matthew McConaughey Trademarks ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’ to Protect Against AI Misuse
[2] Taylor Swift Files to Trademark Voice and Likeness to Protect Against AI Misuse
[4] 978 F.2d 1093 (9th Cir. 1992)
[5] https://variety.com/1997/music/news/buffer-wins-injunction-111823818/
[6] Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc., No. 23-cv-08269, 2025 WL 1902547 (S.D.N.Y. July 10, 2025