X BRICS Legal Forum

 On October 24-25, 2025, the 10th anniversary BRICS Legal Forum was held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) with the main theme "Strengthening cooperation between the countries of the Global South in order to ensure more inclusive and sustainable governance." The Forum was attended by about 200 leading lawyers of national associations of lawyers, representatives of government agencies, universities and businesses of the participating countries, as well as the BRICS strategic partner countries. The most representative delegation at the Forum was the delegation of the Association of Lawyers of Russia (28 people), which took an active part in discussing all the issues on the agenda.

 At the opening of the Forum, the participants were welcomed by Brazilian Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski and Brazilian Chief Auditor Vinicius Marquez de Carvalho, as well as the heads of delegations: Jose Alberto Simonetti, President of the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (proposed, at the initiative of the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, to locate the BRICS headquarters in this city); Bruno Barata Magallanes, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the BRICS International Legal Forum from the Brazilian Bar Association; Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia; Prashant Kumar, President of the Indian Bar Association (invited to participate in the next Forum to be held in India); Pan Yiqin, Vice President of the Chinese Law Society; Nkosana Mvundela, Vice President of the South African Law Society (he suggested paying attention to the concreteness and effectiveness of the decisions of the BRICS Forums); Mohamed Hassanein, Vice-President of the Pan-African Union of Lawyers (North Africa), member of the Egyptian Bar Association (invited to participate in the Forum of the Pan-African Union of Lawyers, which will be held in Cairo in 2026); Adil Fahir, Board Member, Head of the Media Center of the Emirati Bar Association; Tewodros Getachu Tulu, President of the Ethiopian Federal Bar Association, President of the Pan-African Lawyers Union; Hassan Abdolianpour, Head of the Center for Lawyers, Government Experts and Family Advisers of the Iranian Judiciary (proposed to support the creation of the BRICS International Criminal Court); Mercedes Diaz Velazquez, HR Director of the Organization of Collective Law Firms of Cuba.

The participants of the Forum were also welcomed in a video message by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, who, on the Day of the creation of the United Nations, drew special attention to the priority of human rights under the rule of international law, the inadmissibility of politicization in this area, so that "justice becomes a measure of goodness and equality."

The Forum was held in six panel sessions, where over 40 reports and presentations were presented:

No. 1 "Legal cooperation of the countries of the Global South and foreign investment" (legal regulation of cooperation between the countries of the Global South and legal instruments of strategic partnership; legal regulation of foreign investment and protection of investors' rights);

No. 2 "Dispute Resolution and Corporate Practices" (analysis of dispute resolution methods involving parties from the Global South, including arbitration and mediation; discussion of best practices in corporate governance and compliance with legislation);

No. 3 "BRICS and Sustainable development" (comparative analysis of ESG practices in the BRICS countries; legal cooperation in the context of climate change, legal regulation of the "green economy" and legal regulation of sustainable development; tools for protecting biodiversity and protecting natural resources);

No. 4 "Inclusive Governance, Technology and Access to justice" (judicial system reform to ensure greater inclusivity; technology and access to justice in the BRICS countries; transparency and accountability in the legal system, citizen participation and participatory democracy);

No. 5 "Legal education";

No. 6 "Innovation and Intellectual Property in the BRICS countries" (included in the agenda of the Forum at the initiative of the Commission of the Association of Lawyers of Russia on Intellectual Property).

During sessions No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6, Vladimir Lopatin, Scientific Director of the Russian Research Institute of Intellectual Property, Chairman of MTK 550 / TK 481 "Intellectual Property", Chairman of the Commission on Intellectual Property of the Association of Lawyers of Russia, UN expert, delivered a speech, including at a special session, with the main 30-minute report on the topic "Problems of harmonization of legal regulation of intellectual property and innovation in the BRICS and ways to solve them."

As part of the Eurasian integration with the Global South, a new center of the multipolar world has been formed, the Great Eurasian Partnership (CIS – Union State – EAEU – SCO – BRICS), uniting 20 countries (53% of the world's population with a combined GDP of more than 40% of the world's GDP), where, with a very high and high human development index (0.7-1.0), the average level of the innovation development index is 29%.

The report analyzed in detail the reasons for this discrepancy.: "why we're smart but not rich." As follows from the WIPO Report "On the state of Intellectual Property in the world for 2024", scientific, technological and production capabilities of countries are assessed through three parameters: peer-reviewed scientific publications collected in the Web of Science collection, Science Citation Index Expanded (WoS SCIE); patent applications and patents and the export of industrial innovative products. At the same time, based on the predominance of information indicators through which developing countries report their achievements, these data have been concentrated over the past 20 years in eight leading countries (60 percent of scientific publications, 80 percent of international patents and 50 percent of exports).

As part of the WIPO initiative to organize a Global Dialogue between innovative and financial communities on the assessment and use of intellectual Property as a financial asset, V. Lopatin spoke about the 20-year experience of the Russian Research Institute of Intellectual Property for the Development of practice and ecosystem of the intellectual property market, and the proposals of the Association of Lawyers of Russia to organize such a dialogue in the BRICS countries.

In order to ensure national competitiveness and technological sovereignty while reducing inequality in socio-economic and digital development between developed and developing countries in a multipolar world through the development of the intellectual property market and the equal application of international law for all, it is necessary to define Strategies and develop common approaches to harmonize the national legislation of the BRICS countries, including:

• Conducting annual monitoring of national legislation and the possibility of its harmonization in the BRICS countries within the framework of the intellectual property working group and discussing its results within the framework of the annual International Forum "Innovative Development through the Intellectual Property Market" and the BRICS Legal Forum with the participation of authorized national intellectual property authorities;
• adjustment of the UN SDG targets and indicators in the field of innovation (Goals №8; №9, №10; №17), Global Innovation Index, Innovation Development Strategies and Programs from information indicators (publications, patent applications and patents) to economic indicators (value added from IP turnover, IP share in the share of IP in the capitalization of assets, the share of IP in attracting investments, the share of royalties, etc.);
• The development of regional and international standardization as a condition for the harmonization of legal regulation in the fields of intellectual property and innovation, the creation of the international committee ISO "Intellectual Property" and the participation of the BRICS countries in its work;
• study of the practice of the Eurasian system of legal protection of industrial property for possible use in the creation of a similar regional BRICS system;
• Summarizing China's experience in capitalizing intellectual property through intangible assets (ranked 1st in the world) for use in the development of the digital economy and intellectual property market and ensuring national competitiveness in the BRICS countries.

Starting his speech in Portuguese and continuing in Russian with a presentation slide show in English, he proposed to support the practice of communication at the following Forums in the native languages of the BRICS countries, since if the BRICS countries switched to mutual settlements in national currency in mutual trade, then the language of communication is also the currency of civilizational communication. where dry English cannot replace the temperament of the tropic language, the elegance of Chinese speech and the richness of the Russian language. At the end of his speech, he read the poem "Copacabana", written on the first day of the Forum.

On the sidelines of the Forum, working meetings were held between the scientific director of the RNIIIS and the Chairman of the Commission on Intellectual Property of the Association of Lawyers of Russia with the heads and representatives of national delegations from Brazil, Asia, Africa and the Middle East on the organization of further cooperation.

During the brief meeting, Vladimir Lopatin presented Brazilian Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski with information about the work of the RNIIIS within the framework of the BRICS and a commemorative gift for the 20th anniversary of the RNIIIS, including three books of his own poetry, united by a single goal "To dream, love, create, to live up to 150 years." In response to the minister's remark that Rio de Janeiro is a city of creativity, V. Lopatin promised that the next collection would definitely contain poems about this city and Brazil.

In his closing remarks, Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the AYUR, stressed that "the mission of professional organizations of lawyers is to form a legal culture and raise the status of the legal profession," where the importance of the legal community is reflected in the fact that "we always transform everything that happens in society into laws, according to these laws society lives and develops further."". He emphasized the active work of the Russian Research Institute of Intellectual Property for the Exchange of research in the field of intellectual property, and also invited all delegations to participate in the 14th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, which will be held from June 24 to 26, 2026.

Following the Forum, the heads of delegation signed a final declaration, which reflected the proposals of the Commission on Intellectual Property of the Association of Lawyers of Russia: "We support the measures taken by the BRICS countries to protect business and investors' rights, develop the intellectual property market and transform exclusive intellectual property rights into intangible assets of educational and scientific organizations, enterprises and national corporations." as a financial and investment asset to ensure technological sovereignty and national competitiveness."

 RNIIIS Press Service