Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has applied to trademark her voice with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, submitting a 4-second recording to guard against AI deepfakes.
Key Points:
- Meloni filed a 4-second audio clip with the EU trademark office in an application dated Oct. 5.
- The office is still examining the request and has not granted the mark.
- A registered mark would not block voice cloning by itself but could give her more legal options.
Meloni Trademark Filing
Records on the office's website showed the application Monday, and Meloni's office confirmed it. The filing is dated Oct. 5 and includes an audio file in which she twice says in Italian, "Io sono Giorgia Meloni," or "I am Giorgia Meloni." The wording echoes a line from a 2019 political rally that later became the title of her 2021 autobiography and inspired a dance remix.
Rome law firm MpmLegal handled the filing through lawyer Marco Mastracci, and the office lists the application as under examination. The request covers a sound mark, an EU trademark category made up of a sound or a combination of sounds, and it reportedly lists goods and services that include downloadable multimedia content and political events.
No decision has been announced.
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EUIPO Sound Mark
If the office accepts the application, the registration would apply across all 27 EU countries and let Meloni take legal action in each of them. She could force the withdrawal of unauthorized material such as videos or software, then seek damages from whoever produced it. In Italy, counterfeiting a registered trademark is also a crime that can bring fines and, in serious cases, prison.
Italian media reported that approval would not by itself stop anyone from cloning her voice, though it could add legal obstacles.
Singer Giusy Ferreri and voice actor Luca Ward sought similar protection in Italy, and actor Matthew McConaughey used trademark registrations to secure rights to clips of his voice.
Meloni Deepfake History
Manipulated images of Meloni have circulated online repeatedly in recent years, and some were passed off as real. One fake picture showed her sitting on a bed in her underwear. She has warned that deepfakes can "deceive, manipulate and harm anyone" and said in May, "I can defend myself, but many others cannot."
The trademark request follows a civil action Meloni launched in 2024 against a man from Sardinia accused of creating and posting deepfake pornographic images that used her face. That case is still pending before an Italian court.
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