Taylor Swift has 400+Trademarks: Here’s why most brands need at least one.

Last week, billionaire pop star Taylor Swift made headlines for a powerful new way to fight AI misuse of her voice and image: she filed 3 new trademarks to protect both.

One of the trademarks is an image of herself, and the other 2 trademarks are sound trademarks containing audio of her voice. 

Sound trademark applications are much less common than wordmarks or logo marks, but they are becoming a go-to way for celebrities to protect their voice and image in the age of AI.

It was excitng to see that Taylor made these new filings to protect her image and voice from AI misuse because there’s a growing misconception that the rise and popularity of generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude means that all AI-generated content is a legal free-for-all.

It’s absolutely not.

Copyright and trademark laws are still very much alive, and if AI-generated content uses protected trademarks, copyrighted works, or creates unlawful derivative works, there can be legal consequences when that content is distributed.

After reading this headline last week, we did a deep dive on Taylor Swift’s trademarks over the years and learned something astonishing about her portfolio that we think makes for a bigger story:

To date, Taylor Swift Has filed for over 400 Trademark Applications

To date, Taylor Swift has filed over 400 trademark applications worldwide. More than 300 trademark applications in the US, and over 100 trademark applications worldwide.

These 400+ trademark applications represent her domestic and global strategy over many years to fiercely protect her brand. 

Beyond her easily recognized trademarks for music, Taylor’s global brand and businesses encompass a wide range of goods and services that she filed trademark applications for, including Taylor Swift trademarks for cosmetics, candles, jewelry, stationery, drinkware, mobile apps, and more.

That level of protection she’s taken in guarding the rights to her brand with trademarks is not accidental. And frankly, there is a reason this woman is a global billionaire.

Building a brand is incredibly hard and expensive, whether you’re Taylor Swift or a solo business owner building your dream product from your kitchen table or laptop.

It takes money. It takes time. It takes years of consistency.

And the most dangerous part is this:

You can build a valuable brand that you invested thousands of dollars to create and promote and lose all of it overnight, simply by not owning the registration to your trademark.

Without a trademark registration, someone else can copy or sell your brand, or force you into an expensive rebrand after you’ve already invested heavily into growth.

It’s a painful and easily preventable mistake.

Now, you probably don’t need 400 trademarks like Taylor Swift. But most business owners absolutely need at least one.

If you’re building your brand or about to launch a new one without trademark protection, contact us to book a free trademark consultation so we can help you secure your brand the right way.

If Taylor Swift sees the value in having 400+ trademark applications to protect her businesses, there’s no reason your brand should be operating without even one.