{"id":915908,"date":"2026-06-27T22:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/backstreet-boys-look-to-decommission-ai-deepfakes-by-trademarking-their-voices-joining-taylor-swift-lionel-richie-and-others\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T03:12:12","slug":"backstreet-boys-look-to-decommission-ai-deepfakes-by-trademarking-their-voices-joining-taylor-swift-lionel-richie-and-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/backstreet-boys-look-to-decommission-ai-deepfakes-by-trademarking-their-voices-joining-taylor-swift-lionel-richie-and-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstreet Boys Look to Decommission AI Deepfakes by Trademarking Their Voices \u2014 Joining Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, and Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entertainment <\/p>\n

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\"Entertainment<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Glenn Francis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Entertainment The Backstreet Boys have officially joined Lionel Richie and Taylor Swift in moving to trademark their voices amid the gen AI boom. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 33-year-old group\u2019s BSB Entertainment company submitted a sound-mark trademark application on Wednesday. And according to this application, spotted by Gerben IP, said mark would specifically cover \u201cthe spoken words HI, WE\u2019RE THE BACKSTREET BOYS.\u201d<\/p>\n

In support of the request, the Backstreet Boys attached a few \u201cspecimens\u201d containing the relevant words (plus the slightly different \u201chey, we\u2019re the Backstreet Boys\u201d) as spoken in concert adverts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, similarly to the above-noted artists\u2019 own applications, the \u201cI Want It That Way\u201d act pointed to the mark\u2019s intended use across all manner of \u201caudio and video recording services.\u201d These include but aren\u2019t limited to live shows, pre-recorded performances, and multimedia-equipped websites.<\/p>\n

This overlap aside, Lionel Richie technically moved to trademark<\/a> \u201ca man saying\u201d snippets of his famed song lyrics, \u201cEasy like Sunday morning\u201d and \u201cAll night long\u201d among them. Swift, for her part, filed to secure sound marks covering \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor\u201d and \u201cHey, it\u2019s Taylor Swift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding these and adjacent distinctions, the objective is identical across all three applications: To help the professionals protect their voices against AI deepfakes (including in the courtroom) while potentially setting the stage for licensing agreements. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Though \u201ca lesser-known category of trademark protection,\u201d the sound mark isn\u2019t without precedent, Gerben IP summed up<\/a>. Netflix\u2019s \u201ctu-dum\u201d registration certainly stands out here. But what about marks that aren\u2019t as famous and\/or fall well outside the entertainment world?<\/p>\n

To name one, a cursory glance at the USPTO database shows that Lotus Bakeries previously moved to trademark \u201cthe sound of a man saying, \u2018You gotta love Biscoff\u2019, in a confident, warm, slightly smoky tone of voice with an elongated pronunciation of the word \u2018love.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to the growing collection of artist (and actor) voice-trademark applications, what do the sought protections mean for gen AI giants? <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Admittedly, we don\u2019t have an all-encompassing answer at this early stage of the game. At the top level, it\u2019ll be interesting to see whether the applications receive approval; Matthew McConaughey has already obtained multiple voice trademarks.<\/p>\n

Assuming they do \u2013 and also assuming that many other celebrities will soon seek sound marks of their own \u2013 the applicants\u2019 initial enforcement steps may provide valuable information.<\/p>\n

Most immediately, this refers to the possibility that the marks might prove useful during legal battles; as explored by Gerben, however, it\u2019s unclear whether trademarks for particular phrases can be used to target all unauthorized soundalike media.<\/p>\n

Even so, given the AI sector\u2019s stiff competition and huge pile of existing litigation, could the trademarks likewise lay the groundwork for proactive licensing agreements? (On the music-generation side, ElevenLabs and Klay Vision have definitely avoided costly courtroom confrontations with their licensing approaches.)<\/p>\n

Once again, we lack a one-stop answer, but it\u2019ll be worth continuing to track the corresponding artist applications moving forward.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Margarett Badon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Glenn Francis The Backstreet Boys have officially joined Lionel Richie and Taylor Swift in moving to trademark their voices amid the gen AI boom. The 33-year-old group\u2019s BSB Entertainment company submitted a sound-mark trademark application on Wednesday. And according to this application, spotted by Gerben IP, said mark would specifically cover \u201cthe spoken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1627,134163,1798],"tags":[13761,150616],"class_list":["post-915908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-backstreet","category-decommission","category-entertainment","tag-backstreet","tag-decommission"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}