Rights holders to Elvis Presley's music catalog filed a lawsuit against Anthropic on October 23, 2026, seeking up to $48.6 million in total damages for alleged copyright infringement. The plaintiffs contend that Anthropic unauthorizedly used 274 Presley songs to train its Claude AI model and stripped copyright metadata. Anthropic denies the allegations and plans to defend the suit, adding to existing copyright disputes against the company by Universal Music Group and Reservoir.
Details of the Elvis Presley estate lawsuit against Anthropic
- ▪The Elvis Presley plaintiffs suing Anthropic describe their music catalog in court filings as containing some of the most groundbreaking and valuable compositions, lyrics, and melodies in music history
- ▪The plaintiffs suing Anthropic include Authentic Brands Group, Raleigh Music Publishing, multiple trusts, and at least one individual holding interests in Elvis Presley's music catalog
- ▪The owners of Elvis Presley's music rights filed a lawsuit against Anthropic in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging copyright infringement
Allegations against Claude in the Elvis Presley case
- ▪The legal complaint against Anthropic claims that its AI model Claude continues to generate outputs reproducing or closely resembling copyrighted songs despite safeguards introduced by the company
- ▪The Elvis Presley lawsuit filed by Authentic Brands Group alleges Anthropic circumvented protective measures and removed or altered copyright management information from Presley's songs during model development
Anthropic's responses to copyright allegations
- ▪Anthropic told Billboard magazine that it disagreed with the copyright infringement allegations made by music company Reservoir
- ▪Anthropic stated that it disagrees with the claims brought by the Elvis Presley rights holders and intends to fully defend itself against the Elvis Presley lawsuit
Other music copyright lawsuits involving Anthropic
- ▪Reservoir sued Anthropic, accusing the company of stealing copyrighted lyrics and melodies from songs by Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Kings of Leon, and Evanescence
- ▪Universal Music Group sued Anthropic for $3 billion in January 2026, alleging that Anthropic built its AI chatbot Claude using pirated song libraries
- ▪In October 2026, Anthropic asked a judge to rule that its training actions in the Universal Music Group lawsuit filed in January are protected under fair use laws
Suno's partnership with Warner Music Group
- ▪Artificial intelligence music company Suno released an AI model trained on songs licensed from Warner Music Group
- ▪AI music company Suno faced copyright lawsuits from major record labels, after which Suno partnered with Warner Music Group while litigation with Universal Music Group and Sony remains ongoing
The New York Times copyright dispute
- ▪The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement over the use of news content in artificial intelligence systems
- ▪OpenAI and Microsoft denied the copyright infringement claims brought against them by The New York Times over news content used in AI systems
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