Trademarks are a powerful way to assert and protect brand owners from the misuse of their rights by AI platforms, as spotlighted by Matthew McConaughey.1 The beginning of a new year is the perfect time for brand owners to review how they are using, protecting, and leveraging their trademark assets and strategically align protections with evolving business objectives. By following these four critical steps, trademark owners can safeguard and enhance their trademark portfolio throughout the year.
1. Conduct a Trademark Audit: Know What’s Yours, What’s Mine, and What’s Ours
A trademark is any word, phrase, symbol, design, sound, or combination of elements that identifies and distinguishes the source of goods or services in the marketplace. You should take stock of all trademarks that you have adopted, are using on your public-facing materials, or both to determine:
- Are there trademarks that belong to us that we have not identified previously?
- If so, should we protect these marks?
- Are we using third-party marks that don’t belong to us?
If you identify any of your own trademarks, we recommend obtaining a trademark clearance report that assesses the risks associated with using and registering the trademark(s) before filing. If you identify the use of marks that do not belong to you, consider how the mark is being used and consider seeking legal guidance as to whether the use poses any risks.
2. Police and Enforce Your Rights: Don’t Leave It to Chance.
Trademark owners should consider adopting a structured enforcement plan for watching and responding to misuse of its marks or have a rationale for not pursuing protection and enforcement. While there is no express legal requirement to police every infringement of your mark, a pattern of failing to control brand use or ignoring obvious and repeat infringers can result in loss of rights. Brand owners should design an approach that protects the most important brand or brands against encroachments that are or could be the most damaging. In short, they should actively police their marks to ensure they remain distinctive in the marketplace and take prompt action against infringers to prevent dilution and maintain brand value.
3. Assess the Past and Plan for Future Growth: Your Best Year Starts With a Plan.
If a business has evolved over the last year through new products, services, and markets or jurisdictions, its trademark coverage should evolve too. Trademark owners should evaluate whether existing applications and registrations cover current and anticipated business activities. They should also consider filing new applications to close potential gaps and strengthen their rights in jurisdictions where expansion is planned. This could even include seeking protection for non-traditional brands (e.g., colors, trade dress designs, and product packaging) and filing to register marks outside the United States.
4. Prepare for AI-Driven Brand Challenges: Don’t Be Duped!
As generative AI tools transform the ways in which content and brands are created, thus providing potential new avenues to create valuable branding tools. But they also present new risks. An AI system may inadvertently generate logos, names, or slogans that resemble existing trademarks, or it may be trained on the intellectual property of others. Before adopting a new brand, consider reviewing a trademark clearance analysis—especially if the mark was generated with assistance from generative AI tools.
A strong trademark portfolio does more than protect a brand owner’s intellectual property, it protects their reputation, distinguishes them from competitors, and creates market confidence in the brand’s identity. Because a trademark portfolio is a core business asset, brand owners should consider creating a plan at the beginning of each year to sustain their competitive advantage.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, please contact Deb Peckham, Trademarks, Copyrights & Licensing Practice Area co-chair, at dpeckham@barclaydamon.com; Kat Delos Reyes, associate, at kdelos@barclaydamon.com; or another member of the firm’s Trademarks, Copyrights & Licensing Practice Area.
1Matthew McConaughey trademarks iconic phrase to stop AI misuse, BBC NEWS (Jan. 15, 2026, 9:00 AM), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp87z6vexl3o.