The attorneys for Matthew McConaughey inform others that it’s incomprehensible to use AI to mimic the actor’s well-known catchphrase, “Alright, alright, alright.” Over the past few months, McConaughey’s lawyers at Hollywood law company Yorn Levine have obtained eight trademarks for him from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They claim this is done to safeguard McConaughey’s voice and visage from unapproved AI usage.
Among these is a sound stamp on recordings of McConaughey uttering the iconic line, “Alright, alright, alright!” from the 1993 comedy “Dazed and Confused,” which is strongly linked to the actor.
Additional trademarks include a 3-second footage of him seated in front of a Christmas tree, a 7-second footage of him standing on a porch, and audio of him asking, “Just keep livin’, right?” followed by a pause, then “I mean,” followed by another pause, and ending with “What are we gonna do?”
Actors and other celebrities are already shielded from having their persona or likeness used for commercial purposes by state rights-of-publicity statutes. However, McConaughey has standing to file a lawsuit in U.S. federal courts if necessary because the Yorn Levine legal team pursued the innovative trademark method.
They claim that the trademarks could aid in preventing “misuse” in a broader sense, especially for AI-generated videos that aren’t specifically marketing a product or service.
“I don’t know what the court will say in the end. But we have to at least test this,” co-founder and partner Kevin Yorn of Yorn Levine stated. Yorn represents McConaughey as well as other high-profile Hollywood celebrities, such as Zoe Saldana and Scarlett Johansson, two of the most lucrative actors in box office history.
