Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday filed a trademark request for her voice before an E.U. institution in an effort to protect her identity against Artificial Intelligence-generated deepfakes.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that the leader submitted the trademark request before the Spain-based European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The request was reportedly filed through a Rome-based law firm and a company in Italy’s Marche region that specializes in intellectual property protection.
The trademark application, which is presently “under review,” contains a four-second audio sample recording of Meloni saying “I am Giorgia Meloni” twice.
The move is part of Meloni’s efforts to protect herself from instances of voice cloning using Artificial Intelligence-powered tools. The registration reportedly covers “downloadable multimedia content, cultural activities, and the organization of political events.”
According to Euronews, the trademark — if approved — would give the Italian Prime Minister “all the tools she needs” to prevent or outright block the circulation of false and “potentially embarrassing” multimedia content, including files containing statements bearing her voice’s likeness that she never made, or phone calls that never took place.
For years, Meloni has repeatedly denounced that AI has been used to generate multimedia content against her passed as “authentic” — particularly, deepfake images that have widely circulated online in recent months. In May, Meloni cited the circulation of a deepfake photo of her posing in bed and wearing lingerie as part of an attack against her.
In 2024, the Italian Prime Minister filed a civil action lawsuit against a man from Sardinia, accusing him of using AI to generate deepfake pornographic images using her face and seeking 100,000 euros in damages. The case reportedly remains ongoing at press time.
Italian outlets observed that the “I am Giorgia Meloni” audio sample that accompanies the Prime Minister’s trademark request refers to a widely-famous speech issued by Meloni in October 2019, when she said, “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian.” The phrase became widely viral at the time, to the point that it was used in memes and song remixes.
Before Meloni, Italian singer Giusy Ferreri filed a similar trademark request of her voice before the EUIPO earlier this year, in what has been described as the first instance of an individual filing a request of that nature before E.U. institutions. Italian voice actor Luca Ward filed a similar trademark request weeks later.
The Associated Press pointed out that, in the United States, pop star Taylor Swift and Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey are among the first celebrities to have filed similar trademarks of their voice.