Two New Music Lawsuits Target AI Training: Reservoir and Elvis Presley's Rightsholders

In one week, two new copyright lawsuits over AI training were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Reservoir Media sued Suno and Anthropic, as reported on October 22, 2026. On October 23, the rightsholders behind Elvis Presley’s music sued Anthropic. These are allegations. No court has ruled on any of them.

Reservoir v. Suno

Reservoir’s suit against Suno covers 1,050 compositions. It alleges willful copyright infringement, circumvention of access controls and removal of copyright management information, which includes details such as credits. Reservoir seeks the statutory maximum of $150,000 per work, which is $157.5 million, plus amounts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Digital Music News puts the total at about $186 million.

The complaint also points to Suno’s licensing deals with Warner Music, BMG and Believe, which Reservoir says show that a market for licensing music as training data already exists. No response from Suno was reported.

Reservoir v. Anthropic

The suit against Anthropic concerns the lyrics of 853 compositions. Reservoir alleges they were used to train Anthropic’s Claude models, and that Claude produces copies or derivative works from them. It seeks about $128 million for infringement plus about $23.5 million under the DMCA. No response from Anthropic was reported at the time of that coverage.

Elvis Presley’s rightsholders v. Anthropic

The plaintiffs are a subsidiary of Authentic Brands Group and other companies that hold rights to Presley’s music. The suit covers 274 songs. It alleges that Anthropic copied compositions and lyrics to train Claude without permission or payment, that Claude can produce output that closely reproduces the songs, and that titles, songwriter credits and publisher details were removed before training. The statutory claim is $41.1 million, and the total pleaded is just over $48.6 million.

Anthropic told NBC News it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully. The company has previously argued that training AI models on copyrighted material can be protected by fair use in U.S. law.

The pattern across both suits: the claims are about what went in, and about what credits came off.

What independent artists can check

None of this decides how the law will treat AI training. What an artist can do today:

• Keep credits attached. Both complaints include claims about removed credits and metadata. Deliver complete songwriter, producer and publisher information with every release.
• Know your AI tools. If you use AI tools to write or produce, read what their terms say about the music and lyrics you upload.
• Keep records of how a song was made. Session files, drafts and dates are the proof of authorship if a question ever comes up.
• Ask a professional about your catalog. Questions about registration, licensing and your rights belong with a music lawyer or your rights organization. They are outside what we do, and worth having someone cover.

Sources: Digital Music News, Reservoir Files Copyright, DMCA Suits Against Suno and Anthropic (October 22, 2026); Music Ally, Reservoir hits Suno and Anthropic with copyright infringement lawsuits (October 23, 2026); Euronews, Why are Elvis Presley rightsholders suing AI company Anthropic? (October 26, 2026); Music Business Worldwide, Rightsholders behind Elvis Presley’s hits sue Anthropic.