Rights holders to the Elvis Presley catalog filed a $41 million federal copyright infringement lawsuit in California on Friday, October 23, accusing artificial intelligence company Anthropic of using 274 protected songs to train its Claude models without permission, according to Billboard, which first reported the action.
The lawsuit marks a major escalation in the music industry’s legal battles against AI developers, representing one of the first major legal challenges brought directly by an artist’s estate rather than major record labels. The plaintiffs are seeking approximately $41.1 million in damages, calculating $150,000 per infringed track.
Protecting the King’s Catalog in Federal Court
- Authentic Brands Group and co-plaintiffs allege Anthropic unlawfully ingested 274 Elvis Presley compositions, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “All Shook Up,” “Return to Sender,” “(You’re The) Devil in Disguise,” “A Little Less Conversation,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”
- The legal filing asserts that Claude continued generating outputs closely mirroring the original song structures, hooks, and arrangements even after Anthropic implemented technical safeguards, while the plaintiffs also claimed that Anthropic bypassed technical measures to protect the music and deleted or changed copyright management information contained in the song.
- Lead attorney Richard Busch argues that Anthropic built its business model on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before, while Anthropic maintains it disagrees with the claims and plans to respond to the lawsuit, stating on Saturday through a company spokesperson that it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend this case fully.
Lawsuit Claims Anthropic Built Business on Copyright Infringement
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California by a unit of Authentic Brands Group alongside other music rights holders and Lolly Music Publishing, targets the core training mechanisms of generative AI. The complaint further notes that the Elvis Plaintiffs are deeply protective of these iconic songs.
Elvis Presley’s music owners sued Anthropic for about $41M, alleging Claude was trained on 274 songs.Authentic Brands Group filed the federal case, ABE EPE LLC v. Anthropic, alongside several publishers that co-own the catalog.Its demand multiplies those 274 works by $150K,… pic.twitter.com/w89NVIM2Wa
Lead attorney Richard Busch stated in the filing that the defendant built its entire business model on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before. The complaint highlights that Anthropic’s introduction of technical guardrails proved ineffective. When prompted to generate songs for a modern audience, Claude allegedly produced renders that landed close to the originals, maintaining identical song structures, recognizable hooks, and full sets of verses, choruses, and bridges with only light rewording, according to MusicRadar. These renders keep landing very close to the originals: same structure, same hooks reused with light rewording, and full sets of verses/choruses/bridges
, Claude admitted, as cited in the filing.
The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial and damages totaling $41.1 million, setting the benchmark at $150,000 for each of the 274 violated tracks. A representative for Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment following the Friday filing, but later issued a statement noting they disagree with the claims.
Precedent in AI Music Litigation
This federal action arrives amid a broader wave of legal scrutiny facing artificial intelligence developers over intellectual property usage. While major music companies such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Records have previously filed lawsuits against AI firms and generator platforms like Suno, the Presley estate’s action distinguishes itself as a challenge by the owner of a single artist’s catalogue.
| Plaintiff / Estate | Target AI Company | Primary Allegation | Claimed Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elvis Presley Rights Holders (ABG) | Anthropic | Unauthorized training on 274 songs, generating derivative outputs | ~$41.1 million ($150,000 per track) |
| Major Music Publishers (Universal, Concord, ABKCO) | Anthropic | Copyright infringement across over 500 catalog songs | Undisclosed statutory damages |
| Major Record Labels (UMG, Sony, WMG) | Suno | Mass ingestion of sound recordings to train AI generation models | Pending litigation and settlement terms |
Last week, American music company Ledger also filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming that Anthropic used the lyrics and melodies of copyright-protected songs without permission.
The owners of Elvis Presley’s music are suing Anthropic for allegedly using over 250 of his songs to train AI model Claude without permission.(https://t.co/B04fMa6Ug7) pic.twitter.com/2mbKYffznf
More on Elvis Presley
"Return To Sender" has new meaning 🙂 🎵🎶🎵-> Elvis Presley's rightsholders sue Anthropic for $41M over 274 songs allegedly used to train its models; Anthropic says it disagrees and will defend itselfhttps://t.co/Kqt7p762Tc
