Backstreet Boys Seek Voice Trademark Amid AI Deepfake Boom

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’s 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 “the spoken words HI, WE’RE THE BACKSTREET BOYS.”

In support of the request, the Backstreet Boys attached a few “specimens” containing the relevant words (plus the slightly different “hey, we’re the Backstreet Boys”) as spoken in concert adverts.

Meanwhile, similarly to the above-noted artists’ own applications, the “I Want It That Way” act pointed to the mark’s intended use across all manner of “audio and video recording services.” These include but aren’t limited to live shows, pre-recorded performances, and multimedia-equipped websites.

This overlap aside, Lionel Richie technically moved to trademark “a man saying” snippets of his famed song lyrics, “Easy like Sunday morning” and “All night long” among them. Swift, for her part, filed to secure sound marks covering “Hey, it’s Taylor” and “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift.”

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.

Though “a lesser-known category of trademark protection,” the sound mark isn’t without precedent, Gerben IP summed up. Netflix’s “tu-dum” registration certainly stands out here. But what about marks that aren’t as famous and/or fall well outside the entertainment world?

To name one, a cursory glance at the USPTO database shows that Lotus Bakeries previously moved to trademark “the sound of a man saying, ‘You gotta love Biscoff’, in a confident, warm, slightly smoky tone of voice with an elongated pronunciation of the word ‘love.’”

Back to the growing collection of artist (and actor) voice-trademark applications, what do the sought protections mean for gen AI giants?

Admittedly, we don’t have an all-encompassing answer at this early stage of the game. At the top level, it’ll be interesting to see whether the applications receive approval; Matthew McConaughey has already obtained multiple voice trademarks.

Assuming they do – and also assuming that many other celebrities will soon seek sound marks of their own – the applicants’ initial enforcement steps may provide valuable information.

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

Even so, given the AI sector’s 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.)

Once again, we lack a one-stop answer, but it’ll be worth continuing to track the corresponding artist applications moving forward.