Much Ado About McConaughey
By Rachel Buckland & Shivani Chelliah*February 27, 2026
Media outlets have been in a flurry reporting that actor Matthew McConaughey registered eight trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in an effort to protect himself from unauthorized uses of his voice and likeness via artificial intelligence. Some of the registered trademarks are sound marks, including "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT," McConaughey's famous catchphrase from 1993's "Dazed and Confused,” for the category of entertainment services. The other trademarks are motion marks for the category of downloadable audio-visual media in the fields of self-help and entertainment, and consist of short, few-second clips of the actor doing mundane activities such as sitting in front of a Christmas tree or standing on a porch.
Journalists from major publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Variety, BBC, and Entertainment Weekly, among others, reported on these trademark registrations as though McConaughey was taking a novel approach to combat AI-driven misuse of his identity. His lawyers claim McConaughey is the first actor attempting to use trademark law in this way. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal claimed that "McConaughey is taking a novel legal approach to combat unauthorized artificial intelligence fakes: trademarking himself."
This level of media attention is puzzling for two reasons: 1) the use of trademark law to protect celebrity identity is not new, and 2) McConaughey already had a host of trademark claims and other causes of action at his disposal against AI-misuse.
First, McConaughey is far from the first celebrity to try to use trademark law to protect their identity. Athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan have sued for trademark infringement under the Lanham Act when aspects of their name and likeness were used without consent. These cases, in 2003 and 2014, respectively, were brought long before AI deepfakes or voice clones were a fever-pitch concern. McConaughey's attempt to protect a prominent catchphrase by trademarking "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT" is also not new. In 2023, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board held that pop star Lizzo could register one of her famous catchphrases, "100% THAT BITCH," a lyric from her hit song "Truth Hurts." Additionally, DJ Khaled holds registered marks for his catchphrases "We the Best" and "DJ KHALED." Interestingly, Khaled also claims his 9-year-old son, Asahd Tuck Khaled, has had trademark rights in his name since birth, since his parents made him "instantly famous." There are many other examples of famous individuals, including pop stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, actors like Dwyane Johnson, and models like Paris Hilton and Tyra Banks, who have similarly registered selfmarks. For more in-depth analysis, see Professor Jennifer Rothman’s article, Navigating the Identity Thicket, which considers the longstanding protection of people’s names and likenesses under trademark and unfair competition laws.
Second, the excitement surrounding McConaughey's newly acquired trademark registrations feels out of proportion because he already had protection against AI misuse of his identity before he registered these marks. His alternative causes of action include infringement of an unregistered trademark, state-level trademark claims, unfair competition claims (under federal and state law), false endorsement claims, and state-level right of publicity and privacy claims. He could also potentially bring a host of other tort claims, such as fraud, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and false light claims.
Within trademark law, McConaughey doesn't need a registered trademark to sue people for trademark infringement. While trademark registration comes with additional benefits, it is not required for trademark protection. People can claim trademarks in aspects of their name, image, or voice without registration so long as they can prove the aspects they’re aiming to protect are source-identifying, distinctive, function as marks, and are used in commerce. For celebrities like McConaughey, whose livelihood depends on commercializing their identity, these requirements can be easily met. He could also bring state law trademark claims, which are not preempted by federal law.
McConaughey could have additionally brought false endorsement claims under Section 43 of the Lanham Act, as well as similar state law claims, without needing to establish trademark rights at all. Simply put, if AI versions of McConaughey’s voice or likeness are used in commerce in a way that is likely to cause confusion as to whether the goods or services are associated, sponsored, or approved by McConaughey, he is likely to have a host of successful claims.
Another avenue for redress other than trademark and false endorsement laws are state right of publicity laws. Almost every state recognizes a state law cause of action that provides relief for the unauthorized use of another person's indicia of identity. The exact details vary by state, such as whether protection exists by statute or common law (or both), what facets of identity are protected, and whether this cause of action includes postmortem rights. Regardless, McConaughey would have a right of publicity and/or (related or identical) privacy claim against AI-driven misuse of his identity. McConaughey is domiciled in Texas, so it’s likely Texas law would apply for any use. Texas recognizes a common law claim for misappropriation of one’s name, likeness, and voice which would have given him protection against any digital replica or AI voice clone.
There are open questions in copyright law about whether AI-generated digital replicas can obtain copyright protection and whether replicas or clones made using copyrighted material to train on are infringing, but if the replica or clone infringes copyrighted material and McConaughey holds those copyrights (or others do), a federal copyright claim might also be available.
While the McConaughey claims and registrations are far from novel, they do raise some interesting additional questions:
Are Matthew McConaughey’s Registered Marks Valid and Enforceable?
While McConaughey already had a variety of other claims available to combat AI-misuse of his identity, it’s worth analyzing whether his registered trademarks are valid and enforceable. Separately, it’s worth evaluating whether motion marks and sound marks like these can protect a person’s entire likeness or voice, or whether they are limited to the specific registered expression.
A trademark must function as a source identifier, so validity turns in part on whether McConaughey consistently uses the marks to designate specific goods or services. His registrations cover specific categories, such as downloadable audio or video recordings in the fields of self-help, human growth, spirituality, and entertainment services. The specimens submitted with each of McConaughey’s applications attempt to show how each mark acts as a source identifier for his J.K. Livin’ brand, within these specific categories.
The marks must also have distinctiveness—inherent or acquired—to be valid and enforceable. For example, the sound mark, “ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT,” made famous in Dazed and Confused, may be strongly associated with McConaughey, but he would still need to show that consumers recognize the phrase as identifying the source of his goods or services, not merely as a memorable line from the film or a commonly repeated phrase. If the phrase is viewed as a common or generic expression, it risks failing to function as a mark. In other words, do consumers perceive it as a brand indicator or simply as a line from the movie? McConaughey’s claim is further complicated by the potential copyright and trademark claims by the holder of the rights to the film in which the line first emerged. Even though he claims that the line was improvised, his contract and custom in the industry would likely rest ownership in the hands of the movie studio or producers, not an actor on set.
Whether a person can be a “walking, talking trademark” for themselves also remains contested. In ETW Corp. v. Jireh Publ’g, Inc., the Sixth Circuit rejected the claim that all images of Tiger Woods function as trademarks. The court articulated a “general rule” that a person’s image or likeness cannot function as a trademark, except in limited circumstances where a specific photograph or image is consistently used as a mark. Yet other courts, the PTO, and scholars, have concluded otherwise, and there is historical precedent for a person’s own name and likeness functioning as a mark for themselves. Models, celebrities, athletes, and other performers have often registered images of their likenesses for endorsement, modeling, and entertainment services. These registrations protect not only the images themselves from infringement but also restrict unauthorized uses of a person’s identity that are likely to cause consumer confusion.
In short, if valid, McConaughey’s motion and sound marks could offer broad (if duplicative) protection of his likeness and voice within the fields identified in his registrations. We note, additionally, that the Lanham Act allows for the registration of any distinctive indicia, so image and voice can function as a mark and can unquestionably serve as a basis for a false endorsement claim.
Given that these Registrations are Nothing New, Why All the Fuss?
Why would McConaughey’s PR team elicit widespread press coverage around these registrations?
One reason could be to send a public message that McConaughey is serious about controlling the use of AI-powered versions of himself. Another could be that McConaughey is an investor in ElevenLabs, a company focused on creating realistic-sounding AI voice clones. ElevenLabs even powers a Matthew McConaughey voice clone, which he uses to create a Spanish audio version of his newsletter, "Lyrics of Livin.'" It could be that the media attention that came with these trademark registrations was sought after to protect McConaughey's own investment in his AI-clone and also to generate publicity for himself and ElevenLabs.
The likely result of the heightened publicity surrounding McConaughey’s registrations is that even more celebrities will register their own marks. But like so much of the discourse of today’s AI moment, this is another example of the press and others overlooking the longstanding protections both within and outside of trademark law that already protect against voice clones, digital replicas, and deepfakes.
* Authors are Class of 2026 at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and research assistants to Professor Jennifer Rothman