Elvis Presley's estate and Eminem's music publisher sue AI song app Suno in San Francisco federal court

The company that controls Elvis Presley's name and image, along with several song owners, has sued Suno, an app that uses artificial intelligence to make songs, according to a complaint filed Nov. 6 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.  The same day, Eight Mile Style, the Michigan company that owns many of Eminem's songs, filed a separate suit against Suno in the same court.

Both suits say Suno copied famous songs without permission to teach its AI how to make music.  Neither claim has been tested in court.

What Suno does

Suno lets anyone type a short request, such as a style and a topic, and get back a finished song with music, lyrics and a singing voice.  It works like a chatbot for music.  Like other AI tools, it learns by studying huge amounts of existing material.  In Suno's case, that means recorded songs.

Suno is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has an office in San Francisco, the Elvis complaint says.  The complaint says Suno has more than 100 million users and charges $10 a month for its paid plan.

What the lawsuits claim

Elvis Presley Enterprises and the other owners say Suno used 859 of their songs, including Presley hits and Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again."  They say Suno got recordings by "stream ripping," or using tools to save permanent copies of songs from YouTube, which only allows playing them.

They also say Suno can imitate Presley's voice.  The complaint says that in October, lyrics that only mentioned Elvis, with no other instructions, produced two songs that used his voice.  That, they argue, breaks Tennessee's ELVIS Act, a 2024 state law meant to protect performers' voices and likenesses from AI copies made without permission.  Presley lived in Tennessee.

Eight Mile Style says Suno trained on 269 Eminem songs, including "Lose Yourself" and "The Real Slim Shady," and that Suno users have made tracks that copy the lyrics word for word.

What they want

Federal copyright law lets owners seek up to $150,000 for each song copied on purpose.  On that basis, the Elvis plaintiffs seek up to $128.85 million and Eight Mile Style up to $40.35 million, plus other damages.  Both ask the court to order Suno to stop and destroy copies of their songs, including those built into its AI.

Suno's response

Suno's help center says the app may refuse to make songs that include "the names of well known artists."  The Elvis complaint argues those filters are easy to get around.  Suno has not yet filed a response in court.

Suno already faces other suits from musicians and record labels.  In November 2025, Warner Music Group settled its own suit and signed a partnership deal with Suno, according to Warner.

Source:  Elvis Presley Enterprises v. Suno complaint, Case 3:26-cv-13398 (N.D. Cal., Nov. 6, 2026); Eight Mile Style v. Suno complaint, Case 3:26-cv-13399 (N.D. Cal., Nov. 6, 2026); Suno help center, "Does Suno moderate songs?"; Warner Music Group news release, Nov. 25, 2025