On October 23, 2026, seven plaintiffs filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic PBC in federal court in California, alleging that it used lyrics from 274 Elvis Presley musical compositions while developing Claude. The plaintiffs seek up to $41.1 million in copyright statutory damages, plus separate amounts under two other federal claims.
What the lawsuit alleges
The complaint alleges that Anthropic copied lyrics during data acquisition and processing, storage, and Claude training, and that Claude later generated lyrics or related text in response to prompts. The plaintiffs bring claims for direct copyright infringement, circumvention of technological protection measures under 17 U.S.C. § 1201, and removal or alteration of copyright-management information under § 1202. These are claims in the plaintiffs’ complaint, not findings that infringement occurred.
The case, No. 5:26-cv-12473, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. The complaint identifies musical compositions and lyrics as the rights at issue.
Who filed the case
The plaintiffs include ABG EPE IP LLC, Raleigh Music Publishing LLC, and Abilene Music LLC, along with three trusts and individuals named in the complaint. Those individuals include trustees Claire Creatore, Stephen Chapman, Susan T. Aberbach, and Steven Lee, as well as Jason Simeon Aberbach. The court caption does not name Elvis Presley’s estate as a plaintiff.
Why the complaint cites two damages totals
The $41.1 million figure is the requested copyright statutory damages: up to $150,000 for each of 274 compositions. The complaint also seeks $685,000 under § 1201 and $6.85 million under § 1202. Together, the three requested amounts total $48,635,000.
| Claim | Amount requested | Basis |
| Copyright infringement | $41,100,000 | Up to $150,000 for each of 274 works |
| Circumvention of technological protection measures, § 1201 | $685,000 | Separate statutory-damages request |
| Removal or alteration of copyright-management information, § 1202 | $6,850,000 | Separate statutory-damages request |
| Combined total | $48,635,000 | Sum of the three requested amounts |
The complaint also asks for an injunction, an accounting of training data and scraping, and impoundment or destruction of allegedly unauthorized copies. These are requested remedies.
Anthropic’s response
On October 26, 2026, an Anthropic spokesperson said the company disagreed with the claims and intended to defend the case.
