Elvis rights holders sue Anthropic over 274 compositions

Rights holders for 274 musical compositions recorded by Elvis Presley filed a federal complaint against Anthropic on October 23, 2026. The complaint identifies ABG EPE IP LLC and other companies, trusts and individuals as plaintiffs in case 5:26-cv-12473.

The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic copied lyrics without a license, kept them in a permanent internal repository and used them in Claude model training. They also allege that Claude generated derivative or infringing outputs after guardrails were added.

The complaint seeks up to $150,000 per work, or $41.1 million for 274 works, plus separate statutory amounts under two other claims. The allegations have not been tested in court.