filings

Taylor Swift is entering her trademark era.

The global pop star’s company, TAS Rights Management, filed three new trademark applications last week, per the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Two of the applications relate to soundbites of her voice, saying the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.” The other is a well-known image of Swift, often representative of her recent Eras tour, featuring the 36-year-old onstage, holding her pink guitar and dressed in a shimmering bodysuit.

The push to lock down her public image comes at a time when many high-profile celebrities have called for regulations against unauthorized AI-generated content. Matthew McConaughey was one of the first Hollywood A-listers to leverage trademark law as an extra layer of protection.

In January, the “Interstellar” actor secured eight trademarks for his likeness, including images of him smiling and the iconic recording of him saying, “Alright, alright, alright,” from the 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused.”

“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it,” the actor told the Wall Street Journal in January. “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”

Registering a trademark for a celebrity’s speaking voice to defend against the prospect of AI-voice generation is a novel legal approach that has not yet been tested in court. Representatives for Swift did not respond to a request for comment on the intent of the recently filed trademarks. But Josh Gerben, one of the first attorneys to report Swift’s latest legal moves, said this is one of the growing gaps in intellectual property protection that AI can exploit.

Before AI infiltrated the internet, musicians, like Swift, would typically rely on copyright law to help prevent the unauthorized use and distribution of their music, while right to publicity laws would protect them from unlawful commercial use of their likeness. But with AI, users can manipulate people’s voices and images to sing or say practically anything.

So if McConaughey has a trademark on his voice saying a phrase, then theoretically any AI-generated voice that sounds similar to it could be considered a violation of that trademark, according to Gerben.

“If they have this trademark protection in place, then the [AI] platforms can’t use that same voice to create new content,” Gerben said. “Every celebrity would essentially have to go and do the same thing, but it’s trying to cut this off at the source as much as possible.”

Variety first reported news of Swift’s trademark filing.

As one of the most popular musicians, Swift has dealt with her share of unauthorized AI-generated content. She was previously one of the many female celebrities whose likeness was among several of Meta’s AI chatbot virtual celebrities. The illicit chatbots allegedly produced pornographic images. Before the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump also shared AI-generated images of Swift falsely suggesting that she had endorsed him, including one of her dressed as Uncle Sam with the words, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”

Because Swift is such a recognizable public figure, Luke Arrigoni, the chief executive of Loti AI, a tech company that focuses on likeness protection, said trademark filings like these aren’t merely defensive but rather a setup for a long-term protective infrastructure.

“By locking down these trademarks now, she’s ensuring that if a brand wants to use a ‘Swift-like’ AI voice in 2027, they’ll have to go through her authorized gates or face federal trademark infringement,” Arrigoni said in a statement. “She’s essentially putting a price tag on her digital self, and that’s exactly where the entire talent industry needs to go to survive.”

April 14 (UPI) — Kevin Warsh, the presidential pick for the next Federal Reserve chairman, has wealth greater than any other recent chairman, his financial disclosures released Tuesday show.

The filings were part of the usual consideration process for the role. Warsh, if confirmed, would succeed current Chairman Jerome Powell, whose second term ends May 15. A Senate hearing on the matter is expected to take place April 21.

CNBC reported that Warsh’s disclosure forms show that the nominee has about $192 million in assets in combination with his wife, Jane Lauder, who is an heir to the Estee Lauder fortune. Warsh’s solo assets equal about $135 million to $226 million. These numbers show a large range because they can include variable items such as bonds, stocks and other assets.

By comparison, Powell’s financial filings for 2025 showed assets of between $19 million and $75 million, while former Chairman Ben Bernanke, who left office in 2014, submitted filings that year of about $2.3 million in assets, CNBC reported.

If the Senate confirms Warsh, he has said that he will divest a large amount of assets, of which about 1,800 were listed in the forms. Some of these were undisclosed because of cited “preexisting confidentiality agreements,” The New York Times and CNBC reported.

Warsh, who served as a governor at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2011, also said that he would resign posts such as his role as financial adviser to investor Stanley Druckenmiller, as well as several other positions including a board seat at UPS.

Warsh will face the Senate Banking Committee in the planned hearing before a full Senate vote. However, an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into Powell has further complicated matters. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has said he will not vote on Warsh or any other nominee for the role until the investigation is completed.

SANTIAGO, Chile, March 20 (UPI) — Mining companies BHP and U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan submitted two copper projects worth more than $12.5 billion combined to Chile’s Environmental Impact Assessment System, marking one of the clearest signs of a revival in mining investment in the country.

BHP, through Minera Escondida, the world’s largest copper producer, submitted the “Nueva Concentradora Escondida” project valued at $5 billion, which would allow it to continue operations by replacing the Los Colorados plant. That plant is at the end of its useful life.

The project includes an ore processing capacity of 460 thousands of tons per day in the Antofagasta region. If approved, it would begin operations between 2031 and 2032.

Minera El Abra, the Chilean subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan, is seeking to invest $7.5 billion to extend its operations by 40 years and increase its production by more than 300,000 metric tons of copper annually starting in 2033, once it becomes operational.

The initiative includes the construction of a concentrator plant, a desalination facility, among other projects.

Analysts say these investments respond to sustained growth in global copper demand, driven by electrification, power grids and the energy transition, although they also note that they are being accelerated by a shift in the local political environment after the arrival of a government led by José Antonio Kast.

As one of its first measures, the administration introduced the National Reconstruction Bill, which includes initiatives to reduce bureaucracy and streamline permitting.

The proposal includes lowering the corporate tax rate from to 23% from 27% to align it with countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz told local media this week that the government aims to offer clear rules, legal certainty and an agile, non-discriminatory process that respects the environment.

“This investment will move forward smoothly,” he said, referring to the Escondida project.

The president of the Chilean Mining Chamber, Manuel Viera, said about $18 billion in projects are stalled due to bureaucratic hurdles in the permitting process.

“And in just one week, the president of the republic has indicated that they should be unlocked. That is a sign that signal has been well received by investors, and we expect news like those of Escondida and El Abra to continue in the coming months because Chile also needs more and better mining,” he said.

Cristian Cifuentes, senior leader of studies and content at the Center for Copper and Mining Studies, or Cesco, told UPI that the announcements represent a clear indication of a revival in mining investment, although the trend already had been emerging without such concrete evidence.

“It is a validation of Chile as a competitive jurisdiction in a highly capital-intensive global context,” he said.

He added that while investment decisions respond to global copper demand, their execution depends “critically on local conditions: permitting, institutional stability and political signals.”

“Any improvement in regulatory certainty or pro-investment narrative accelerates decisions that, in many cases, were already in the pipeline. At the same time, these filings show that, despite recent regulatory tensions, the country maintains baseline conditions that allow investment decisions to move forward,” he said.

Víctor Frangi, managing director of Delivery & Transformation at KPMG Chile, said the country is creating more favorable conditions to activate projects, in an environment in which copper demand is projected to increase by about 40% by 2040.

“Chile approved the Framework Law on Sectoral Authorizations, which seeks to reduce permitting times by between 30% and 70%, along with the modernization of the Environmental Impact Assessment System regulations to focus evaluations on projects with significant impact,” he said.

Frangi said that Chile now offers greater business certainty and a more limited level of risk, which facilitates large-scale investment decisions.

Analysts warn, though that growing regional competition to attract mining investment exists.

“Countries such as Argentina have improved their macroeconomic environment and promoted initiatives such as the Incentive Regime for Large Investments, positioning themselves to attract large-scale projects, such as Vicuña, a joint venture between Lundin Mining and BHP, with an estimated investment of $18 billion,” Frangi said.

He added that Peru and even the Democratic Republic of Congo also show dynamism.

“Chile faces the challenge of remaining competitive against other destinations that are also capturing investment. There are replacement and efficiency projects, such as the new Escondida concentrator, and changes in the operating model, such as the advance of desalination as a standard in water use,” Frangi said.

Viera said mining companies are seeking more copper deposits amid growing global demand.

He added that armed conflicts between the United States and Iran, as well as between Russia and Ukraine, have disrupted the balance between supply and demand.

“They have broken the balance of supply and demand. As armed conflicts increase, demand rises for critical minerals used in weapons manufacturing. These are factors driving the search for copper, iron and other minerals, in addition to demand linked to the development of technologies associated with climate change,” he said.