30/06/2026
When a Face or Voice Becomes a Legal Asset: IP in the Age of Deepfakes
A deepfake can look like “just a video”, but legally it is often a mix of different rights colliding at once. In practice, there is no “single deepfake law” that solves everything, the right holders typically rely on a mix of IP tools and non-IP rights, depending on the context, background, and the exact content used.
Copyright: The “Source Material” Problem
Copyright is usually attached to a specific creative work, such as photos, footage, sound recordings, scripts, and music, but they are not attached specifically to a person’s identity by itself. Many deepfakes are built from a copyrighted input or source material (for example, a clip from a movie, a recording from a podcast, or a photographer’s images).
If the source material is used to reproduce and redistribute deepfake content without the owner’s permission, copyright claims may be triggered. The key is in what content was used or taken to produce the deepfakes, rather than simply the fact that someone’s face or voice appears.
Trademarks and False Advertisements
Deepfakes become an IP issue when they create marketplace confusion, particularly around endorsements or affiliation. An example would be a deepfake of a famous celebrity, sponsoring or endorsing a specific product or brand.
This can also move beyond “confusion” into false advertising. The content produced may communicate a misleading commercial message about sponsorship, approval, or endorsement. For brand owners, the risk is two-sided:
your brand can be shown as being endorsed by someone who never agreed, and
a celebrity’s identity can be used to create an implied partnership that doesn’t exist.
The legal assessment would often be based on whether the deepfake is used “in trade” (i.e., for commercial promotion) and whether the overall impression would mislead an average consumer.
Personality and Publicity Rights: Control Over Your Likeness
Publicity/Personality rights are about unauthorized commercial exploitation of someone’s name, image, likeness, or sometimes voice.
A mainstream example of this surfaced in May 2024, when Scarlett Johansson objected to OpenAI’s ‘Sky’ voice as sounding ‘eerily similar’ to hers, after she had declined a request to collaborate. OpenAI then paused the Sky voice. Many initially treated the incident as a copyright question, but in reality it was based on the right of publicity and voice misappropriation. In IP, copyright only protects specific works and recordings that have already been produced or generated, copyright does not protect a person’s identity or voice itself.
The Practical Reality: Deepfake Disputes Are “Stacked Claims”
In practical terms, a winning strategy is often one that stacks the most relevant rights: copyright over copied source material, trademark/unfair competition for false endorsement, and publicity/personality rights for commercial misuse of likeness.
While deepfakes are evolving fast, the core question remains: what was taken, what was implied, and what harm did it cause?
By: Amer Alnasser
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