The companies that control Elvis Presley's music have taken Anthropic to court, alleging that its Claude chatbot was built on his songs and lyrics without a licence or any payment. It was filed on Friday 23 October 2026. Its lead plaintiff is a subsidiary of Authentic Brands Group, which manages Presley's intellectual property, with other companies, trusts and individuals who hold rights in his catalogue have joined it.
“Even after the Defendant supposedly put up 'guardrails' after being sued, in one of its latest iterations, Claude continues to infringe”
the plaintiffs' complaint, in the complaint · nbcnews.com ↗
The complaint names 274 songs, including "All Shook Up", "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Don't Be Cruel" and "A Little Less Conversation". The plaintiffs ask for statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work, which adds up to roughly $41.1 million. They also want a permanent injunction and destruction of unauthorised copies.
Elvis Presley performing in the mid-1970s
Fotos International / Getty · Image: NBC News
The rights holders say the copying did not stop once training ended. Their claim is that users can still prompt Claude for lyrics or for reworkings, and that when it was asked to recreate a song "for a modern audience" it returned close copies of the original structure, hooks and verses. They argue that the safeguards Anthropic added after earlier lawsuits do not hold. Lead attorney Richard Busch, who won the Marvin Gaye estate's Blurred Lines case, also acts for Round Hill in its own action against Anthropic.
About Anthropic
Anthropic has faced the music business in court before. In 2023 music publishers sued it over lyrics Claude was said to reproduce, a case covering about 500 works with potential damages of roughly $75 million, and coverage at the time suggested it could get bogged down in fair-use arguments.
The publishers later tried to add claims that Anthropic obtained songs from pirate sources. According to Digital Music News, the court refused that request, and the publishers answered with a separate, newer complaint in January 2026.
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Anthropic's reaction is reported differently: NBC News quotes a spokesperson saying the company disagrees and will defend the case fully, while NME says it had not yet responded and notes the company has argued that training AI can be fair use. The suit joins a crowded docket. Universal, Concord and ABKCO sued in 2023, BMG, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell have since filed, Round Hill and Reservoir have gone after Anthropic and Suno, and Anthropic paid $1.5 billion last year to settle with authors over pirated books. No hearing date has been named.
Presley with his guitar in a scene from the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is
Getty Images · Image: NME
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