On Saturday 7 November, Billboard and Variety reported two lawsuits filed the previous day in the federal court for the Northern District of California. The same legal team, which includes Richard Busch, is bringing both cases.

Elvis Presley Enterprises filed the first lawsuit, Billboard reported. The company is part of the licensing company Authentic Brands Group and manages Presley’s name, image and a large share of his songs. Eight Mile Style, the publisher that manages Eminem’s compositions, and Martin Affiliated filed the second. Eminem himself is not a plaintiff.

Elvis lawsuit relies on Tennessee law

The Elvis lawsuit alleges that Suno trained its model without permission on Presley songs such as ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. The plaintiff also says Suno violated Tennessee’s ELVIS Act, passed in 2024, because the service can be used to make songs that imitate Presley’s voice without permission.

Earlier laws generally covered only the commercial exploitation of a person, such as an unauthorised advertisement, Billboard said. The ELVIS Act removed this limit and also makes companies that provide tools for unauthorised imitation liable. Courts have not yet decided how far an AI company is liable for allegedly copying an artist’s identity, the magazine said.

In other cases, Suno has said that its current models do not allow an artist’s name in a prompt and do not imitate specific voices. The lawsuit calls this ‘unequivocally false’, Billboard reported. The plaintiffs say the service produced an Elvis clone as recently as October when the lyrics contained his name.

Eminem lawsuit covers 269 compositions

Eight Mile Style alleges that Suno trained its model on 269 compositions, including ‘Lose Yourself’ and ‘Stan’, and generates songs and lyrics that imitate them. Eminemnews.com said it had read the complaint on CourtListener. The complaint claims that users can easily get round the block on artist names, for example with ‘Eminem-style’ prompt packs made by third parties, the site reported.

For wilful copyright infringement, the publisher seeks up to $150,000 per work, $40.35 million in total. The sources differ on the other claims. AllHipHop reported a total claim of about $41 million, of which $672,000 relates to the removal of copyright information. Eminemnews.com reported that $672,500 relates to circumventing protections and that the publisher seeks up to $6.725 million for removing copyright information. The amounts are the plaintiff’s claims, and the allegations have not been proven.

Suno points to its blocks

Suno told Variety and Billboard that it does not allow artists’ names or songs in prompts. The company works ‘with third party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse’, a spokesperson said.

Eminemnews.com reported that the Detroit Free Press had pointed out that Suno had invoked fair use, an exception in US copyright law, in earlier cases. In the new lawsuit, the publisher sets out why it believes the exception does not apply.

Suno is already in litigation with Universal Music Group and Sony Music. In October, the Elvis rightsholders also sued Anthropic, alleging that its model Claude was trained without permission on 274 Presley songs.