The estate and intellectual property managers of Elvis Presley have filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Anthropic, alleging the firm used copyrighted lyrics without permission to train its language models and generate unauthorized musical versions.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, was brought by Authentic Brands Group alongside various companies, trusts, and individuals who hold ownership rights to the late musician’s catalog. The plaintiffs assert that Anthropic utilized copyrighted material from 274 songs without securing a license or providing any payment. The catalog at issue includes major hits such as “All Shook Up,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “A Little Less Conversation,” and “Return to Sender.”
“The Elvis Plaintiffs’ iconic collective catalog contains some of the most groundbreaking, revolutionary, influential, and enduring musical compositions in human history,” the legal complaint states. The plaintiffs claim the alleged infringement occurred throughout the development of Anthropic’s flagship Claude models and persists as users generate outputs reproducing copyrighted lyrics or unauthorized adaptations.
Richard Busch, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs, emphasized the strict oversight maintained by the estate. In a public statement, Busch wrote that the plaintiffs serve as guardians of the catalog and are highly protective of Presley’s body of work. In response to the litigation, an Anthropic spokesperson issued a brief statement declaring that the company disagrees with the claims and intends to mount a full defense.
The complaint further targets Anthropic’s broader operational practices, accusing the company of building its business model on mass copyright infringement through the alleged scraping of internet content and pirated books for model training. The lawsuit points to a precedent set last year when Anthropic agreed to a landmark $1.5 billion settlement in a copyright infringement case brought by authors who argued the company illegally used pirated books to train its artificial intelligence systems, marking the largest settlement in American copyright history.
The action by Presley’s rights holders aligns with a broader surge of legal challenges against Anthropic and other artificial intelligence developers over the unauthorized use of copyrighted musical works. Earlier this year, Universal Music, Concord Music Group, ABKCO Music, BMG Rights Management, Sony Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell Music pursued or expanded similar legal actions against Anthropic.
In addition, Anthropic and AI music generation firm Suno faced recent complaints filed by independent music publisher Round Hill, also represented by attorney Busch, and independent music company Reservoir Media. The Presley complaint specifically addresses Anthropic’s safety measures, alleging that despite the implementation of guardrails following previous legal actions, the latest iterations of Claude continue to infringe upon copyrights.
The lawsuit details instances where the system was asked to recreate specific songs for modern audiences, resulting in outputs that closely mirrored the originals in structure and hooks while utilizing light rewording. The complaint argues that such outputs cross the boundary from inspiration into unauthorized reproduction.
Under the complaint, the plaintiffs are seeking $41.1 million in statutory copyright damages, calculating up to $150,000 for each of the 274 works allegedly infringed willfully. Furthermore, the rights holders are requesting a permanent injunction to bar Anthropic from continuing to infringe upon the works, alongside a court order demanding the destruction of all unauthorized copies.
