Authentic Brands Group, the company responsible for posthumously managing Elvis Presley’s music and likeness, has brought a claim in the US against Anthropic for alleged copyright infringement, after Anthropic supposedly trained its Claude AI model on 274 of Presley’s songs.
The claim is one of many recently, in which the claimants argue that an AI company has allegedly infringed the copyright works of an artist or author, with AI companies continuing to argue that their uses of the copyright works fall under the fair dealing provisions within US copyright law so as to not be infringing acts.
The claimant will presumably leverage Elvis Presley’s substantial global reputation to assist in proving the extent of Anthropic’s knowledge of the musical works in order to seek a greater award of damages. Given that numerous similar claims involving other artists and AI companies are currently underway, each following a common pattern of the allegations and defences raised, there still remains a vital consideration for US courts to decide the extent to which the US fair use defence can be relied upon by AI companies. As litigation piles up on AI companies, this claim is yet another legal battle to keep a close eye on.
If you have any questions on the above, or if you need any advice or support in respect of your own Intellectual Property, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
