Rome, October 6, 2026 – The Europe Today: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has applied to register her voice as a sound trademark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), seeking additional legal protection against the growing misuse of artificial intelligence to create deepfake content.
The application, submitted on October 5, includes a four-second audio recording in which Meloni repeats the phrase “Io sono Giorgia Meloni” (“I am Giorgia Meloni”). The application is currently under examination by the EUIPO.
The move comes amid growing concerns among governments, public figures and regulators over AI technologies capable of convincingly replicating voices and images. Meloni has previously been targeted by manipulated online content and has spoken out about the need to verify digital material before sharing it.
If approved, the sound trademark could provide Meloni with an additional legal avenue to challenge certain unauthorized uses of her voice, including some AI-generated imitations. However, the registration would not automatically prevent AI systems from reproducing her voice or prohibit every form of imitation.
The recorded phrase echoes a well-known declaration made by Meloni at a political rally in 2019 and later used as the title of her 2021 autobiography. The filing comes as voice-cloning technology becomes increasingly accessible and capable of producing synthetic recordings that can be difficult to distinguish from genuine speech.
Meloni has previously taken legal action over deepfake material involving her likeness. In 2024, she launched a civil case against a man accused of creating and distributing sexually explicit AI-generated images using her face; the case remains pending before an Italian court.
The initiative places the Italian prime minister among public figures seeking new legal mechanisms to address the risks posed by AI-generated impersonation and deepfakes. Italian singer Giusy Ferreri has also pursued protection for her voice through intellectual-property mechanisms.
