The age of AI has spawned a new kind of existential crises for celebrities i.e.; the fear of being cloned without being consented Deepfake audio, synthetic lookalikes and using AI for endorsement and have already created quiet controversies among celebrities like Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift. But Matthew McConaughey decided not to wait, as in 2026 Variety reported that McConaughey, represented by attorneys from Yorn Levine, had secured eight approved trademark applications from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) thus protecting his persona from generative AI.
What exactly did he trademark?
This wasn’t considered to be simple registration of a name. The trademarks have span across various sensory identifiers like sound, motion clips and audio-visual sequence, all tied to McConaughey’s public image. As per Bird and Bird’s analysis they were registered under Classes 9 and 41. Some of the marks included in the filing were audio of McConaughey saying “Alright, alright alright ” with USPTO noting the precise pitch pattern of each syllable. Secondly, a 7 second video clip standing on a porch, captured as a protected identifier. Thirdly, a three second video clip of him sitting in front of a Christmas tree as this forms another distinctively registered visual. Another one is the audio of “Just keep livin’, right?” followed by a pause, “I Mean” another pause, and “What are we gonna do?”. The application for the first sound mark was filed in December 2023 and it was granted approval in December 2025, as all the eight trademarks are registered to McConaughey’s company – J.K Livin Brands Inc., based in Sherman Oaks, California.
The Legal Strategy: Using Old Tools in the New Era.
As per the Romano Law’s views, McConaughey is repurposing the classic intellectual property framework and using it to tackle modern problems. The key highlight of this is the usage of sensory mark as a mark that forms beyond the use of logos and words to protect sounds, movements and other non-visual identifiers that function as source identifiers in the minds of consumers similar to the approach taken in MGM Lion’s roar. By registering the Alright with exact pitch contour, he is asserting his vocal delivery as a brand identifier which can be compared to a corporate logo. Thus, preventing misuse or false endorsement in the AI era as AI cloning has commonized. Quoting the words of Mr. Jonathan Pollack, McConaughey’s attorney “In a world where we’re watching everybody scramble to figure out what to do about AI misuse, we have a tool now to stop someone in their tracks or take them to federal court.”
Pre-emptive measures, Not Reactive
Lawyers of McConaughey have confirmed that they are unaware of any existing unauthorised use of his likeness as this is a pre-emptive strategy as in case a legal issue arises this would give them a right to sue for the misuse of his likeness. The lead attorney Kevin Yorn has pointed out that they even don’t know what the court will say at the end but they have to do at least this.
Also, there is a twist that, from Variety it is quite noted that McConaughey is also an investor in Eleven Labs which is an AI firm that specializes in AI voice synthesis and recently they have partnered with them to create a Spanish version of his newsletter thus generating AI likeness of his voice. As this creates a consent framework that makes authorised AI partnerships like Eleven Labs legitimate while blocking others from unauthorised replications.
India Courts are Ready – But you must Knock
India’s Judiciary has been remarkably progressive. From SCC Online’s 2025 survey documents a string of landmark rulings recognises that personality rights through Article 21 of the Constitution i.e., the right to privacy and dignity. The precedents have been set through range of cases starting from Amitabh Bachan vs. Raha Nagi, 2022 to Kumar Sanu vs Jammable Ltd., 2025, despite these victories, Khurana and Khurana noted that there is a critical vulnerability because personality rights in India are entirely judge made and there is no codified statute, as each win requires fresh litigation and enforcement against foreign AI platforms remains patchy. Further, the litigation only approach has its real limits, analysis from Kumar Sanu’s case shows, securing an injunction takes months, by the time millions of AI-generated deep fakes may already be in circulation.
While views the strategies made by McConaughey and his team, it is seen that are looking forward to work and engage them with possibilities of AI and are thoughtful about how everyone’s creative identity is represented and protected. As Indian celebrities need to stop thinking AI as a threat rather start building a licensing infrastructure to protect and monetize their rights.
Push for a dedicated Right to Publicity statute
India’s most glaring gap is the absence of standalone right to publicity statute. From IIPRD’s analysis to put bluntly, personality rights in India exist entirely through case law, making them fragile, inconsistent and expensive to enforce. McConaughey benefits from the Lanham Act -a federal statute that give nationwide, codified enforcement tools. India does need to have an equivalent.
Going forward
A view from Madan Law is that, this approach now shifts the traditional misappropriation of burden of proof as rather proving financial harm caused using deepfakes, now McConaughey needs to demonstrate that AI output can cause source confusion i.e.; the reasonable viewer might genuinely believe it is him. From Bird and Bird, it is observed that even though the US state level publicity rights are geographically fragmented, McConaughey’s federal trademark strategy applies beyond the products and commercial intent as it established a protection framework against the AI generated content that mimics his protected markers.
It is seen that whether the court upholds this novel approach on trademark law remains an open-ended question. But the enforcement challenges are real as it is still a dilemma on metrics they will assess if the AI content is considered as an infringement as they will be answered on later litigation in 2026 or beyond. As McConaughey’s model is a proactive federal registration with corporate IP entiety and AI partnership on your own terms is luxury rather maximising the use of his rights. In India even though tools exist, the fact that using them offensively is missing along with a statutory framework that doesn’t no require celebrity to go to court every time.
For now, it is clear that Hollywood is on the track to protect publicity rights by reforming the traditional trademark laws for the AI era and this is considered to be chapter one of this series.
Authored by: Mr Narayana M Research Scholar
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