Elvis Presley Catalog Owners Sue Anthropic for $41 Million Over Unauthorized Use of 274 Songs in AI Training

The owners of the Elvis Presley music catalog filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI company Anthropic on October 23, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs, led by Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, allege that Anthropic trained its Claude AI model on 274 of Presley's copyrighted songs without authorization. The songs include "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Don't Be Cruel," and "A Little Less Conversation."

The plaintiffs are seeking between $41 million and $48.6 million in damages, calculated at $150,000 per infringed work. They are also asking for a permanent injunction to prevent further use of the songs.

Lead attorney Richard Busch said Anthropic is "destroying the value of these Works in a matter of a few years with only profit as its motive." The complaint argues that Anthropic's guardrails, designed to prevent copyright-infringing output, have proven ineffective.

Anthropic said in a statement that it disagrees with the allegations and intends to defend the case fully. The company has historically argued that training AI models on copyrighted material constitutes fair use under U.S. law.

The lawsuit follows a $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic reached in July 2026 with a class of authors over training data. The company has also faced suits from Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and Universal Music Group.

Anthropic filed for an initial public offering in late October 2026, reporting first-half revenue of $16.3 billion alongside a net loss of $80.7 billion, largely from noncash accounting adjustments.