Issue No. 069 · Story 01 · October 26, 2026

Owners of Elvis Song Rights Sue Anthropic Over AI Training

On October 23, owners of Elvis song rights sued Anthropic in California federal court over lyrics to songs recorded by Elvis Presley. They allege Anthropic copied lyrics without a license to train its AI models and stripped titles and credits during data cleaning. No court has decided any claim.

§The complaint identifies 274 compositions recorded by Elvis Presley, including All Shook Up and Can't Help Falling in Love.
§It alleges Anthropic got past logins, paywalls and bot detection to access lyrics and removed song titles, songwriter credits and publisher names during data cleaning.
§The plaintiffs seek up to $41.1 million in statutory copyright damages, damages on the other claims, a permanent injunction, and impoundment or destruction of copies they allege infringe.

THE TAKEAWAY

The 1201 and 1202 claims address how Anthropic allegedly obtained and handled the lyrics, including access controls, titles and credits. The direct copyright claim addresses alleged copying for training.

Filing: ESCA Filings

Same issue

Buc-ee's Presses Trademark Claim Over Beaver's Mini Mart

Buc-ee's filed an amended complaint against Hanes Road Carryout on October 20 in federal court in Ohio. Buc-ee's alleges Hanes Road Carryout's use of Beaver's Mini Mart infringes its registered BEAVER'S mark. No court has decided infringement.

Trademark