Music AI startups Suno and Udio have retained Latham & Watkins, the prominent law firm representing OpenAI and Anthropic, to defend against lawsuits filed by major record labels Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group.

The lawsuits, filed in late June, allege that both AI companies unlawfully used copyrighted recordings to train their AI models, potentially flooding the market with AI-generated content that could compete with and devalue authentic recordings.

The Latham & Watkins legal team includes Andrew Gass, Steve Feldman, Sy Damle, Britt Lovejoy, and Nate Taylor. The labels are represented by attorneys from Hueston Hennigan and Cloherty & Steinberg.

Fair use is expected to be a central defense argument, with AI companies claiming their use of copyrighted materials for training purposes qualifies as "intermediate use" under fair use doctrine. However, the music industry remains skeptical, particularly after AI safety nonprofit Fairly Trained demonstrated how these platforms could generate music closely resembling copyrighted songs by various artists.

Latham & Watkins brings significant AI litigation experience, having defended Anthropic against UMG and Concord Music, and currently representing OpenAI in multiple high-profile cases, including lawsuits from Sarah Silverman and The New York Times.

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