Industry & Advocacy News
May 18, 2026
The hearing for final approval of the settlement in the Anthropic class action case was held on Thursday, May 14, before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in federal court in San Francisco.
During the hearing, seven objectors testified on various issues, including the exclusion of works that publishers failed to register with the U.S. Copyright Office, treatment of books registered as a group, treatment of pseudonymous works, and the size of the payments. In addition, an attorney for the objectors raised questions about the adequacy of the notice to class members and requested a 35-day extension of time for class members to decide whether to opt out.
The judge had some questions for the class counsel on their proposals for calculating attorneys’ fees and costs, as well as whether to allow class members who missed the deadline to opt out. Class counsel had already agreed to allow those who filed an excusable neglect to opt out late and, on further questioning from the judge, agreed to extend that allowance to the handful of others who filed late opt outs. Anthropic’s attorneys objected, however, and Judge Martínez-Olguín requested that Anthropic file a written brief by May 21 on why the unexcused late opt-outs should not be honored. The court directed the plaintiffs’ attorneys to file responses to the objections by the same date.
We expect the court will rule on final approval of the settlement shortly after the papers are filed and will provide more information as soon as it becomes available.
