Anthropic settlement fees cut request
Lawyers in Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement with authors and publishers reduced their fee request to $187.5 million, underscoring ongoing legal and IP cost risks for LLM companies. (pymnts.com)
Class counsel originally sought roughly 20% of the fund—about $300 million—plus $1.97 million in unreimbursed litigation expenses and a $17 million reserve, according to their December motion. (news.bloomberglaw.com(news.bloomberglaw.com)) An earlier proposal reserved $75 million to be shared with three additional firms—Cowan DeBaets Abrahams & Sheppard, Edelson PC, and Oppenheim + Zebrak—which U.S. District Judge William Alsup sharply criticized in a December memorandum. (www.pymnts.com(pymnts.com)) Judge Alsup retired from active service and the matter is now overseen by Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, who has already flagged concerns about fee-sharing and the mechanics of distributing the settlement proceeds. (news.bloomberglaw.com(news.bloomberglaw.com)) The deal covers roughly 482,460 works at an allocation of about $3,000 per work and requires Anthropic to destroy the allegedly pirated datasets and certify that those files were not used in its commercial models. (news.bloomberglaw.com(news.bloomberglaw.com)) Key process dates: the claims deadline is March 30, 2026 and a final approval (fairness) hearing is scheduled for April 23, 2026, with initial disbursements not expected before August 2026 if the court grants final approval. (authorsguild.org(authorsguild.org)) The parties proposed $18 million for the settlement administrator and $50,000 service awards for each named plaintiff—Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson—while class counsel say they logged more than 18,000 hours prosecuting the case. (news.bloomberglaw.com(news.bloomberglaw.com))
