First Global Forum on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence
On November 9-10, 2026, in Geneva (Switzerland), the First Global Forum on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the IP and AI Forum) was held under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Forum was attended by more than 2,500 participants (in person and online) from 194 WIPO member countries.
The organizational foundation for the Forum was the WIPO Discussion on IP and Advanced Technologies, which has been held since 2019 and has brought together nearly 20,000 participants to exchange views and identify new pressing issues in this area.
At the Forum, WIPO launched a new service: AI‑based voice translation in the form of speech‑to‑speech conversion in 7 languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Portuguese), as well as real‑time subtitles available online via WIPO`s speech‑to‑text tool, which supports 20 languages.
The Forum also featured the launch of a new AI assistant for the Global Innovation Index (GII) by WIPO (beta version), which is designed to make information about innovations more accessible and easier to navigate. This tool will be available for free use starting with GII‑2026.
At the opening of the Forum, participants were welcomed by Daren Tang, Director General of WIPO, who in his address highlighted three key questions that he urged attendees to seek answers to within the Forum, in the context of an era when "AI will be able to create AI itself":
- what should intellectual property protect in the era of AI;
- will the current intellectual property system remain relevant, and how should it evolve;
- which mechanisms and technologies should be used in this regard?
The main events of the Forum were chaired by Kairat Torebayev, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organization and to international organizations in Geneva.
The Forum’s programme included 19 events, comprising 11 sessions and discussions, 8 presentations and special reports, which featured more than 60 papers and presentations. During the two‑day programme, a structured and up‑to‑date analysis of key and regularly discussed topics was presented, including global changes in the field of regulation and legislation, relevant judicial practice, basic issues related to establishing authorship of inventions and works, as well as problems associated with the input and output data of AI.
During the open discussions at the Forum, the positions of the national patent offices of Kazakhstan (via video conference) and Azerbaijan (via video message) were presented by their leaders. At the same time, Kamran Imanov, Chairman of the Board of the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, outlined the possibility of recognizing AI as an electronic person as a subject of relations in the field of intellectual property with limited rights (at the first stage this would include only the right of authorship and the right to a name as personal non‑property rights).
On the first day of the Forum, Vladimir Lopatin - Scientific Director of the Republican Scientific Research Institute of Intellectual Property, Chairman of the interstate technical committee (CIS – ITK 550) and the national technical committee for standardization “Intellectual Property” (RF – TC 481), Chairman of the AYUR Intellectual Property Commission, Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation, delivered a 10‑minute report on the topic “Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence for the UN SDGs: Challenges and Prospects,” proposed recommendations to WIPO for addressing three issues raised by WIPO Director‑General D. Tang.
(Link on the WIPO website https://webcast.wipo.int/video/WIPO_IP-AI_GEN_26_2026-11-09_dd006ca1-db12-4479-04e3-08df3b1fc4ff).
Highlighting the position of the leaders of the 20 countries of the Greater Eurasian Partnership (the CIS, the SCO, and BRICS+) as a new center in a multipolar world, which represents the majority of the planet’s population (53% of the population and more than 40% of global GDP), and emphasizing the need to preserve the UN and its structures, albeit with their reform, the academic head of the RNIIS (the only non‑governmental scientific organization on intellectual property on one‑sixth of the Earth’s landmass) singled out the following priorities.
Firstly, to ensure the implementation of the reforms previously announced by the WIPO leadership to develop the IP economy and transform IP into a financial asset, while simultaneously reducing socio-economic inequality between the "collective West" (led by the United States) and the Global South, in line with the sustainable development agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period leading up to 2036, at the national level in all countries. In order to achieve the following:
- to more actively promote the integration of WIPO with international organizations, including within the framework of the UN, by adjusting the goals and indicators of the UN SDGs in the field of innovation related to the economics of IP (Goals No.8; No.9; No.10; No.17);
- ensure that, when developing and adjusting Strategies and programs for innovation and IP development, there is a widespread transition (from the GII to the national level) from informational indicators (publications, patent applications, and patents) to economic indicators (value added from IP-related turnover, the share of IP in asset capitalization, the role of IP in attracting investment, etc.);
- to continue developing international and regional (including the Eurasian system) systems for the legal protection of industrial property in order to reduce the level of unfair competition;
- to universally switch to an international regime for the exhaustion of exclusive rights.
Secondly, given that competition in the field of AI has increased between states (creating obstacles to the import of advanced microelectronics technologies, attracting qualified AI specialists from other states, and freely distributing technologies; the risks of dependence on unscrupulous suppliers of AI solutions are increasing) and, based on an analysis of national AI strategies (more than 60 countries) and IP, to ensure their mutual adjustment with the inclusion of sections on IP and AI; to develop uniform rules for regulating AI, taking into account the levels of application of AI technologies (security and space, economics and finance, social sphere).
Thirdly, AI technologies should be considered exclusively as a complex intellectual property object (IPO), which may initially include no fewer than six results of intellectual activity (RIA):
- the primary computer program (software complex) is an object of copyright protection, protected as a literary work; the PC algorithm is a production secret (know‑how) or an invention;
- the database (DB) is an object of copyright, and the content of the DB is an object of related rights.
- the derivative computer program is an object of copyright, protected as a literary work; the computer algorithm is a trade secret (know‑how) or an invention.
The rights to the RIAs created using AI technology should be vested in the developer of the RIA as the right holder, subject to a condition that requires discussion (the share of creativity exceeds XX%) and mandatory labeling of products/works/services based on IP created with AI technology.
Fourthly, taking into account the positive experience of standardization in Russia and the CIS in the field of intellectual property (30 national and interstate standards, on the basis of which the world’s first national system of standards for the economics of intellectual property has been created), and the development of GOST “Intellectual Property. Artificial Intelligence. General Provisions”, it is proposed to support the establishment of an international committee on intellectual property within the ISO, with the participation of CIS countries, BRICS+, and the Global South.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the Scientific Director of the RNIIIS held working meetings with the leadership of WIPO and its divisions, as well as with heads and authorized representatives of relevant agencies and organizations from China, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Japan. During these discussions, he provided an overview of the results of the RNIIIS’s 20 years of work and extended an invitation to participate in the upcoming 18th International Forum, "Innovative Development through the Intellectual Property Market," scheduled for April 2027.
RNIIIS Press Service
Daren Tang, Director General of WIPO, and Vladimir Lopatin, Scientific Director of the RNIIIS, Chairman of the Commission on Intellectual Property of the Association of Lawyers of Russia at the First Global Forum on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence
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In the WIPO plenary hall