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Case: BMG Rights Management v. Anthropic PBC (N.D. Cal.), filed March 18, 2026 — docket number to be confirmed via CourtListener before publication
BMG Rights Management became the third major music company to sue Anthropic when it filed a copyright infringement complaint in March 2026, joining Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO as plaintiffs pursuing separate actions against the AI company over Claude's training data. BMG's complaint alleges that Anthropic — then valued at $380 billion — built that valuation in part on what the filing characterizes as stolen copyrighted works, arguing that the company trained Claude on BMG-controlled musical compositions, including lyrics, without a license.
The timing places BMG's suit squarely alongside the two Universal/Concord/ABKCO cases against Anthropic — the original 2023 lyrics suit nearing summary judgment, and the $3 billion torrenting-evidence case filed in January 2026 — giving Anthropic three simultaneous music-industry copyright actions to defend in the Northern District of California. BMG's decision to file its own suit rather than seek to join the existing publisher group's litigation suggests the Bertelsmann-owned company is pursuing its own damages theory and evidentiary record, distinct from claims already pending on Anthropic's docket.
As with the other Anthropic music cases, the central legal question BMG's suit will test is the same one running through nearly every AI-training copyright dispute in music right now: whether training a large language model on copyrighted lyrics and compositions is protected fair use, or direct infringement giving rise to statutory damages. Anthropic has continued to press a fair-use defense in its other music-industry litigation, and is likely to do the same here.
Source reporting: Music Business Worldwide, "BMG sues Anthropic for infringement, alleging AI firm's $380B valuation was built on 'stolen copyrighted works'" (March 18, 2026).
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