Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni filed an application on October 5, 2026 with the European Union Intellectual Property Office to register a short audio sign as an EU trade mark, according to the office's public register, which lists the file under number 019431219 and records it as under examination.

In Short

Italy's prime minister has asked the EU trade mark office to register a short clip of her own voice as a brand-style sign. Fake audio and video made with AI can copy public figures, and a registered sign would give her one more legal tool, although lawyers quoted in the coverage say it would not stop copies by itself. Nothing is decided yet: the office is still examining the file and has not approved it.

What the register entry shows

The extract from the EUIPO register describes the mark as "(Trade mark without text)", with the type set to Sound and the nature set to Individual. Both the filing date and the date of receipt read 05/10/2026. The filing language is Italian, with English as the second language, and the applicant's own reference is TM31699EU00. The status field reads "Application under examination". Two fields that often matter in later disputes are empty: acquired distinctiveness is marked No, and the description reads No data. A player embedded in the page shows a length of 0:04.

The register adds that "The application fulfilled Fast Track conditions", and that the timeline for the file is unavailable. Publications, oppositions, decisions, appeals and renewals all show No data, which is consistent with a file that is a couple of days old.

Three Nice classes are claimed, and the lists of goods and services are long. Class 9 carries six terms, among them downloadable and recorded media content, downloadable multimedia files, downloadable electronic publications and multi-media recordings. Class 41 carries 43 terms, ranging from cultural activities, conventions, seminars, teaching and training to live entertainment events and a long run of publishing services covering books, magazines, newspapers, journals, reviews and electronic publications. Class 45 carries two: "Organization of political meetings" and "Legal research in the field of public policy". That makes 51 terms in total.

The owner is listed as Giorgia Meloni, a physical person in Italy. The representative is Praxi Intellectual Property S.p.A., based in Civitanova Marche, and the correspondence address on the extract sits with a Rome law firm. Il Sole 24 Ore reported on October 5, 2026 that the filing went through MpmLegal and a Marche-based intellectual property firm.

The clip and who has confirmed it

The register extract does not contain the audio itself, and its description field is blank. What the clip contains therefore comes from press coverage. According to Reuters, reporting from Rome on October 5, 2026, the clip lasts four seconds and has Meloni saying in Italian that she is Giorgia Meloni, a sentence she says twice. Reuters noted that the phrase echoes the title of her 2021 autobiography, Io sono Giorgia, and a declaration she made at a 2019 rally.

Reuters also reported that her office confirmed the application and that its purpose is protection against AI-generated deepfakes. The register itself states no purpose. The agency said the application has not been approved. According to Reuters, Italian media reported that approval would not by itself prevent the use of deepfakes but could add legal obstacles for anyone who produces them. Meloni has urged internet users to verify content, Reuters said, and has stated that she can defend herself while many others cannot.

How the office will examine the file

The Fast Track note matters for timing. The procedure was set up in 2014, and according to Noerr's commentary at the time, word, figurative, three-dimensional and sound marks are eligible. An applicant picks terms from the office's harmonised database, pays at filing and files without a description or disclaimer. Noerr also pointed out that an application can drop out of Fast Track later if the examiner raises an issue.

Published timelines vary slightly. According to Traam, examination takes roughly one month and the opposition period runs for three months after publication. Pinsent Masons describes the route as about 50% faster than the standard one, with a registration certificate arriving roughly six months after publication if nobody opposes. Applied to a filing date of October 5, 2026, a one-month examination points to about November 5, 2026, and a three-month opposition window opened on that date would close in early February 2027. That is arithmetic on third-party descriptions. The register shows no dates for this file beyond the filing.

On cost, the fee schedule in force since 2016 sets €850 for the first class, €50 for the second and €150 for each further class, according to Finnegan. Thaon & Co's 2026 guide puts the online total for three classes at €1,050. The extract does not show payment details.

Sound signs have been registrable in a form examiners can read since the rules on representation changed. Article 3(3)(g) of the implementing regulation allows a sound mark to be filed as an audio file or as musical notation, and ABG-IP dates the arrival of audio files to October 2017. The category is small. ABG-IP counted 313 registered EU sound marks up to May 2021, and Inventa, writing in WIPR in April 2025, counted 532 cases involving EU sound marks including international designations.

Distinctiveness is where refusals tend to arise. In July 2021 the General Court gave its first ruling on a sound mark filed as an audio file, in the Ardagh case (T-668/19), and upheld a refusal because the sound of a can being opened is functional or inherent to the goods. In an earlier case, Globo (T-408/15, decided September 13, 2016), the court backed a refusal on the footing that the sound resembled a banal ringtone or alarm. A spoken name is a different kind of sound, and none of the sources reviewed here addresses how the office treats one.

What a registration would cover, and what it would leave out

A trade mark registration protects a sign for the goods and services listed. It does not create a general property right in a voice. Francesco Venturoli of the Italian firm Bugnion made the point on September 23, 2026, in a note on voice-related filings: a registration gives no exclusive right over the voice as such. To oppose an AI copy, a holder would still have to show similarity between the signs, similarity between the goods or services, and a likelihood of confusion. A deepfake may avoid trademark use altogether, according to Bugnion, which lists personality rights, data protection and copyright as complementary tools and treats a trade mark's sufficiency against faithful replicas as doubtful.

Il Sole 24 Ore set out what registration could add: action across the European Union, withdrawal of unlawful material, damages and criminal proceedings for trade mark counterfeiting under the Italian criminal code. It also reported that singer Giusy Ferreri and voice actor Luca Ward had applied for similar protection. Bugnion's note fills in the sequence. Ward filed in February 2026 and is already registered. Ferreri filed on April 23, 2026 under EUTM 019353063, in classes 9 and 41, and her application is pending.

The court case that predates the filing

Meloni has been the subject of AI-made fake pornographic videos for several years, and the attached court and police reports cover that history. The Polizia di Stato said in a notice dated March 17, 2021 that two residents of Sassari had been reported for defamation after producing and publishing deepfake videos of her. The investigation was opened by the Rome postal police after a complaint she filed in June 2020, concerning videos and photos on a US erotic website. International judicial police cooperation identified the user who uploaded them, and the Sassari postal police searched the suspects' home and seized computer equipment.

The case reached court later. Open reported on October 24, 2023 that the videos were published in 2020, stayed online for months and drew millions of views, and that a father and son faced defamation charges. According to Open, the first hearings were set for March 2024: the ordinary procedure for the son, opening on March 19, and a request for a "messa alla prova" (a probation-style alternative) from the father, on which the judge would decide on March 25. Meloni, the paper wrote, sought €100,000 for the Interior Ministry's fund for women who are victims of violence.

The Associated Press, in a report updated on March 22, 2024, said Meloni had been asked to testify on July 2 and was listed as an injured party. She sought €100,000 ($108,212) in symbolic damages, to be donated to an Interior Ministry fund for women victims of domestic violence, according to her attorney Maria Giulia Marongiu. Marongiu wrote to the AP: "The crime in question is particularly odious, as it allegedly involves the uploading of fabricated pornographic images that could affect any unsuspecting woman with damaging consequences for her reputation and private life." She added: "Given the role played by Giorgia Meloni, it seemed all the more fitting that she should be a civil plaintiff, in the hope that this would be useful in raising awareness of the issue also on behalf of the many women who often remain defenseless."

Meloni gave evidence by video link on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, according to a Bernama report built on dpa. She said, per the Italian agency ANSA: "This is a form of violence against women." She also said: "The effect these videos had on me is unbearable. It is unbearable for anyone, especially for someone like me who fights violence against women every day." The report gave the damages figure as €100,000 (US$109,700) and said the judge postponed proceedings until February 2025, with more prosecution witnesses still to be heard.

Where the accounts differ

The sources do not line up on every point. Reuters in October 2026 describes a civil action begun in 2024 against "a man from Sardinia"; the attached reports describe two defendants and put Meloni's civil-party status in the proceedings by October 2023. The dollar equivalents of the damages claim also differ between reports, while the euro figure stays at €100,000. The attached material ends at the February 2025 hearing. Reuters says the case remains pending, so no outcome is established in any of the documents. Nor does any of them tie the trade mark filing to the trial: the link is made only in Reuters' background.

Rules on synthetic likeness in Italy, the EU and Germany

Italy's Law 132/2025 entered into force on October 10, 2025, according to a note from Cleary Gottlieb dated October 29, 2025. Its Article 612-quater of the Criminal Code covers the non-consensual dissemination of AI-falsified content that misleads and causes unjust harm, and carries one to five years' imprisonment. At EU level, the transparency obligations in Article 50 of the AI Act became applicable on August 2, 2026.

Other rulings have addressed voices directly. A Berlin court decided on August 20, 2025 (case 2 O 202/24) that AI voice cloning violates personality rights, in a dispute between a voice actor and a YouTuber with around 190,000 subscribers. The court awarded €4,000 in damages plus €1,155.80 in costs, and held that imitating a recognisable voice with AI is an infringement even when no original recording is used. In Italy, the data protection authority adopted order n. 577 on July 23, 2026 and published it on August 7, 2026, banning further processing of Enrico Mentana's data in AI-altered clips broadcast by Striscia la Notizia. The company behind the programme was given 30 days to report on compliance. No fine was imposed.

Where the filing meets advertising and media

For advertisers and publishers, the filing sits alongside a set of platform and regulatory moves on synthetic likeness. YouTube set out an expansion of its likeness detection on March 10, 2026, extending a pilot to politicians and journalists. The tool scans faces, and audio detection was planned for later in 2026. On August 19, 2026, YouTube added four dispute categories for likeness claims, which can cover a face or a voice and can block a video outright.

Audio buying has its own exposure. Voice cloning has opened programmatic access to host-read inventory, a format that depends on a recognisable presenter, while AI narration raises its own consent disputes over replicated voices. The register entry covers goods and services in exactly those areas: downloadable media, multimedia recordings, publishing and events.

Two questions remain open. The first is whether the office will accept a spoken name as a registrable sign; the second is whether a registration, once granted, would be recognised by platforms as grounds for removing a synthetic copy. The sources reviewed describe no platform policy that treats an EU sound mark as a trigger for takedown, and YouTube's likeness claims run through their own dispute categories. The office has not yet published the file, so the earliest public test would come with a decision on registrability.

Timeline

  • June 2020: Meloni files a complaint over fake videos on a US erotic website, according to the Polizia di Stato notice.
  • 2020: The videos are published and stay online for months, according to Open; the Sassari postal police begin investigating.
  • March 17, 2021: Polizia di Stato reports two Sassari residents for defamation after a search and seizure of devices.
  • October 24, 2023: Open reports that father and son face defamation charges, with Meloni as civil party seeking €100,000.
  • March 19 and 25, 2024: Scheduled hearing for the son and scheduled decision on the father's probation request, according to Open.
  • March 22, 2024: The AP reports Meloni asked to testify on July 2 as an injured party.
  • October 9, 2024: Meloni testifies by video link; the judge postpones proceedings until February 2025.
  • August 20, 2025: Berlin court rules AI voice cloning violates personality rights (PPC Land coverage).
  • October 10, 2025: Italy's Law 132/2025 enters into force, adding Article 612-quater to the Criminal Code.
  • February 2026: Luca Ward files an EU sound mark application; it is now registered, according to Bugnion.
  • March 10, 2026: YouTube extends likeness detection to a pilot of politicians and journalists (PPC Land coverage).
  • April 23, 2026: Giusy Ferreri files EUTM 019353063 in classes 9 and 41, according to Bugnion.
  • July 23, 2026: Italian data protection authority adopts order n. 577 on AI-altered clips of Enrico Mentana; published August 7, 2026 (PPC Land coverage).
  • August 19, 2026: YouTube adds four dispute categories for AI likeness claims (PPC Land coverage).
  • September 23, 2026: Bugnion publishes its note on voice-related trade mark filings.
  • October 5, 2026: Application 019431219 filed with the EUIPO in classes 9, 41 and 45; Reuters and Il Sole 24 Ore report it the same day.
  • About November 5, 2026: Estimated end of a one-month Fast Track examination, based on third-party timelines (arithmetic, not an EUIPO date).

Summary

Who: Giorgia Meloni, Italy's prime minister, as applicant; Praxi Intellectual Property S.p.A. as representative; the European Union Intellectual Property Office as the examining body.

What: An application for an EU sound mark, file 019431219, covering 51 listed goods and services in classes 9, 41 and 45. According to Reuters, the sign is a four-second clip of Meloni saying who she is, and her office said the aim is protection against AI deepfakes. The file is under examination and meets Fast Track conditions.

When: Filed on October 5, 2026. Third-party timelines suggest an examination of about one month, then publication and a three-month opposition period, though the register shows no further dates.

Where: At the EUIPO in Alicante, with protection that would apply across the European Union. The related court case is in Sassari, Sardinia.

Why: Reuters attributes the filing to protection against AI-made fakes. Legal commentators cited in the coverage say a registration would add remedies but would not grant rights over the voice itself, and the register entry gives no stated purpose.