First Global Forum on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence

Mr. Daren Tang, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

• Mr. Hesham Azmi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Intellectual Property Authority, Egypt
• H.E. Ms. Liisa-Ly Pakosta, Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, Estonia
• H.E. Ms. Mari-Leena Talvitie, Minister of Science and Culture, Finland
• H.E. Mr. Kim Yong Sun, Minister of Intellectual Property, Republic of Korea
• H.E. Mr. Edwin Tong, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Singapore
• H.E. Mr. Ziyambi Ziyambi, Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Zimbabwe
• Mr. Kasai Yasuyuki, Commissioner, Japan Patent Office, Japan
• H.E. Mr. Kamal Shehadi, Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence and Minister of Displaced, Lebanon

H.E. Mr. Kairat Torebayev, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organization and international economic organizations, Kazakhstan

Driven by rapid advances in computing power and access to data, AI has evolved from a specialized technology with largely theoretical applications into an increasingly powerful force shaping many facets of everyday life. This dynamic keynote presentation will explore what may come next, and what AI’s advancing capabilities could mean for societies, economies and governments, highlighting the opportunities, risks, implications and transformative potential ahead.

Speaker: Mr. Ren Ito, Co-founder and Chairman, Sakana AI, Japan

AI in Action will bring the transformative potential of AI to life through real-world storytelling by innovators, entrepreneurs and creators from different regions and generations. The first showcase will spotlight how AI innovation is addressing global challenges. It will demonstrate how AI can help scientists and innovators approach previously intractable problems, accelerate discovery and develop solutions with the potential to benefit people and communities worldwide.

Speaker: Mr. Anant Madabhushi, Executive Director of the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute and Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University, United States of America

As AI transforms how we create, innovate and access knowledge, does the rationale underpinning the IP system still hold? Returning to first principles, this panel will examine the legal, economic and broader societal rationales for IP, from incentivizing creativity and innovation and promoting knowledge dissemination to supporting economic development, cultural preservation, and the public interest. Drawing on available evidence and diverse perspectives, the discussion will test established balances around incentives, competition, and access. Ultimately, it will ask whether the IP system remains fit for purpose, or whether some of its foundations need to be rethought.

Moderator: Mr. Stanley Lai, Head of the IP Practice, Allen & Gledhill LLP, Singapore

Speakers:

• Ms. Jennifer Tauli (Jing) Corpuz, Chair, Indigenous Caucus, Philippines
• Ms. Caroline Gueye, Visual Artist, Senegal
• Ms. Myrtha Hurtado Rivas, General Counsel, Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages, Switzerland / Peru
• Mr. Cédric Manara, Director, Head of Copyright, Google, France
• Ms. Chijioke Okorie, Associate Professor of Law, University of Pretoria, Nigeria
• Mr. Gaétan de Rassenfosse, Associate Professor of Science Technology and Innovation Policy, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Belgium
• Mr. Antony Taubman, Honorary Professor, Queen Mary University of London, Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia

What picture emerges when we connect the dots using IP data? Long before ChatGPT captured the world’s attention, the signals behind the generative AI boom were hiding in plain sight. The numbers were telling a story, but were we listening? By revealing where innovation is concentrated, which industries and applications are gaining momentum and where new patterns are emerging, IP data offers a unique window into the evolution of AI. This presentation will explore how those insights can help us see the innovation landscape taking shape, spot emerging technologies as they gather momentum and stay one step ahead of the next breakthroughs shaping tomorrow.

Speaker: Mr. Andrew Toole, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America

While much of the current policy and legal debate focuses on Generative AI and Agentic AI, embodied robotics represents another rapidly developing technological frontier. AI domestic robotics researcher Emily Kate Genatowski will be joined by Tova, the robot she lives with, to explore the intersection of human life and robotics and consider the IP and broader governance questions that may emerge as these technologies become increasingly integrated into everyday life.

Speaker: Ms. Emily Kate Genatowski, AI Domestic Robotics Researcher, PhD candidate in Digital Humanities, University of Vienna, United States of America

The second showcase will highlight how SMEs everywhere are using AI to address immediate and tangible challenges. It will demonstrate how locally grounded innovation can respond to the realities of developing countries, expand access to practical solutions and deliver meaningful impact for communities globally.

Speaker: Mr. Cristian León, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Drovid Technologies, Chile

With developments in AI and IP unfolding across jurisdictions and multiple fronts, keeping track of what matters is increasingly challenging. This one-stop shop of short presentations will offer a concise overview of key developments shaping the AI and IP landscape. It will highlight significant legal decisions, including those from courts and IP offices; developments in law and regulation; and developments in the private sector, including licensing approaches, commercial agreements and emerging business models. Focusing on a selection of defining developments from around the world, the presentations will consider why they matter, the questions they raise, and what they may signal for the evolving relationship between AI and IP.

Speakers:

• Ms. Rachel Free, Partner, CMS, United Kingdom
• Mr. Andres Guadamuz, Reader in Intellectual Property Law, University of Sussex, Costa Rica
• Mr. Edward Lee, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, United States of America
• Mr. Daryl Lim, H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law and Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Partnerships, Penn State Dickinson Law, United States of America
• Ms. Elena Perotti, Executive Director, Public Affairs and Media Policy, WAN-IFRA, World Association of News Publishers, France
• Mr. Wang Qian, Professor of Law, East China University of Political Science and Law, China

AI is challenging not only what humans make, but increasingly what makes us human. As synthetic representations of name, image, likeness and voice become increasingly lifelike, and the use of biometric data expands, protection remains fragmented across jurisdictions and areas of law. Could IP offer a more coherent response? This panel discussion will explore whether and how the IP system could be shaped to protect human characteristics in the age of AI, including the potential for new or adapted rights, their scope and enforcement, and where their limits should lie. It will consider the policy choices involved in developing an effective and balanced IP framework that protects not only what humans make, but what makes us human.

Moderator: Ms. Natalie Corthésy, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica

Speakers:

• Mr. Marco Bassini, Assistant Professor of Fundamental Rights and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University, Italy
• Ms. Imogen Heap, Recording Artist and Technologist, United Kingdom
• Mr. Jakob Plesner Mathiasen, Partner, Gorrissen Federspiel, Denmark
• Mr. Anderson Rocha, Full Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Forensics, University of Campinas, Head, Recod.ai Artificial Intelligence Lab, Brazil
• Ms. Kalpana Tyagi, Assistant Professor of Innovation Laws, Maastricht University, India

The third showcase will bring the creative process to the stage through a live demonstration of a creator working with AI. It will reveal the human choices, experimentation and imagination behind the process, showing how AI can open new possibilities for creative expression while keeping the creator at the center.

Speaker: Ms. Inch Chua, Multidisciplinary Artist, Singapore

AI is transforming how IP offices operate and the environment in which they serve users. Heads of IP Offices will compare what they are seeing at the filing gate and how they are deploying AI across search, examination, classification and service delivery. Looking beyond patent examination, the discussion will consider the administrative and workflow implications of AI across patents, trademarks, designs and copyright registries. From changing filing patterns and expanding prior art to trust, skills, access and cooperation, it will explore how offices with differing resources and capabilities can harness AI, share capacity and safeguard quality across the IP system. Ultimately, the session will ask: what does a future-ready IP office look like?

Moderator: Ms. Anna Jardfelt, Director General, Swedish Intellectual Property Office, Sweden

Speakers:

• Ms. Lilyclaire Bellamy, Executive Director, Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, Jamaica
• Ms. Maria-Daphne Papadopoulou, Acting Director, Hellenic Copyright Organization, Greece
• Ms. Ewa Skrzydło-Tefelska, President, Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, Poland
• Mr. Mordechay Sorek, Executive Director of the Israel Patent Office, Israel
• Mr. Tan Kong Hwee, Chief Executive, Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, Singapore
• Mr. Zhang Zhicheng, Deputy Commissioner, China National Intellectual Property Administration, China

Building on the Super Session this presentation moves from discussion to deployment. Hear directly from those designing and implementing AI tools across search, examination, classification and service delivery, and discover what it takes to turn technological promise into practical improvements in efficiency, quality and user experience.

Moderator: Mr. Ken-Ichiro Natsume, Assistant Director General, WIPO

Speakers:

• Mr. Samuel Anum, Intellectual Property Consultant, Ghana Industrial Property Office, Ghana
• Mr. Rahul Bhartiya, AI coordinator, European Union Intellectual Property Office, Spain
• Mr. Mario Magued Mina, Machine Learning Developer, Advanced Technology Applications Center, WIPO
• Mr. Bruno Pouliquen, IP Data Machine Learning Development Manager, Advanced Technology Applications Center, WIPO
• Ms. Kelly Sims, Acting Deputy Director General, IP Australia, Australia

As creators and innovators increasingly incorporate AI into their work, how should the IP system treat the resulting outputs? Reflecting on real-world uses in creative and innovative processes, this panel discussion will explore the evolving relationship between human and AI contributions. Bringing copyright and patent perspectives into dialogue, it will examine the similarities and differences between authorship and inventorship, the role of human and machine contribution, and how the existing IP framework, which was built on a human-centered foundation, is responding to AI outputs.

Moderator: Mr. Mohammad Elzend, Appellate Judge, High Court of Appeals, Senior Advisor, International and Cultural Cooperation Department, Ministry of Justice, Egypt

Speakers:

• Ms. Claudia Catelin, Director of Policy, The Publishers Association, United Kingdom
• Ms. Eva Janečková, Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School, Slovakia
• Mr. James Malackowski, Senior Managing Director, Ocean Tomo, United States of America
• Mr. Ekene Som Mekwunye, Filmmaker, Founder and Creative Director, Riverside Productions, Nigeria
• Ms. Anna Tumadóttir, Chief Executive Officer, Creative Commons, Iceland
• Mr. Christian Wichard, Deputy Director General, Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, Germany

The fourth showcase will give the stage to a young innovator from the emerging, AI-native generation. It will demonstrate how young people are using AI as a tool for exploration, experimentation and entrepreneurship, bringing fresh perspectives to complex challenges and turning ambitious ideas into real-world solutions.

Speaker: Mr. Alain Ephraïm Goumou, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, TínaanTech, Technical Director, Kôlèpòno-AI, Guinea

How can artificial intelligence transform the way we explore and use innovation data? This session will introduce WIPO's new Global Innovation Index (GII) AI Assistant (beta), designed to make innovation insights more accessible and easier to navigate. Following opening remarks on the vision behind the initiative and a brief introduction to the technology, the session will showcase how the Assistant can help users explore innovation performance and identify relevant insights from WIPO’s GII.

Speakers:

• Mr. Marco M. Alemán, Assistant Director General, IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO
• Ms. Maria de Icaza, Head of Web Communications, Customer Experience, Marketing, and Digital Engagement Division, Infrastructure and Platforms Sector, WIPO
• Ms. Kim Miles, Director of Digital Engagement, Customer Experience, Marketing, and Digital Engagement Division, Infrastructure and Platforms Sector, WIPO
• Ms. Lorena Rivera Leon, Senior Economist and co-editor of the Global Innovation Index, Department for Economics and Data Analytics (DEDA), IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO
• Mr. Jeff Slee, Data Scientist, Department for Economics and Data Analytics (DEDA), IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO
• Mr. Roger Zamora Matute, Department for Economics and Data Analytics (DEDA), IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO

Debates around the development of AI models have often proceeded along separate tracks: copyright and access to training data on one side, and patents and other forms of protection for AI models and related technologies on the other. Yet as the boundaries between software, hardware and data blur, these questions increasingly overlap. For example, a model used for medical diagnosis may embody a patentable invention while having been trained using copyright-protected images, sound recordings or other material. Moving beyond established arguments, this panel discussion will explore how choices concerning training inputs, model protection, open-source, open-weight and closed approaches, and real-world applications interact, and how IP policy decisions in one area can have consequences across the wider IP ecosystem.

Moderator: Ms. Michelle Azuaje-Pirela, Associate Professor of Law and New Technologies, Metropolitan University of Technology, Chile

Speakers:

• Mr. Ahmed Elgammal, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Rutgers University, United States of America / Egypt
• Ms. Kim Jordahl, Associate General Patent Counsel, Office of General Counsel, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, United States of America
• Mr. Daeho Lee, Managing Partner, PI IP LAW, Republic of Korea
• Ms. Burcu G. Özcan Büyüktanır, Professor of Civil Law, Head of the Department of Civil Law, Director of the Health Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, Hacettepe University, Türkiye

IP sits at the heart of many of the choices shaping AI, yet it is too often treated as an afterthought or left to technical specialists. This presentation will explore how to build greater IP fluency across the AI ecosystem and make IP more understandable, relevant and accessible to policymakers and other stakeholders. The ambition is IP for everyone, everywhere – moving IP beyond the domain of specialists and into the wider AI conversations.

Speaker: Fr. Paolo Benanti, T.O.R., Professor of Moral Philosophy and Ethics of Technology, Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy

What will be on the agenda a year from now, and further into the future? To answer those questions, we’ll first look back at WIPO’s first AI and IP Symposium in 1991 and then forward beyond today’s debates. This forward-looking panel will explore the emerging developments, unanswered questions and biggest uncertainties that could reshape the relationship between IP and AI. Bringing together diverse perspectives, the discussion will reflect on 35 years of IP and AI developments, offer informed predictions, identify the signals worth watching and surface issues not yet on the agenda but which may define the debates of tomorrow.

Moderator: Ms. Inbar Preiss, Senior intellectual property correspondent, MLex, Netherlands

Speakers:

• Ms. Danielle Boyer, Founder, The STEAM Connection, United States of America
• Mr. Paul Goldstein, Stella W. and Ira S. Lillick Professor of Law, Emeritus, Stanford University, United States of America
• Ms. Aishwarya Karnataki, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Glovatrix, India
• Mr. Qoane Mothibeli, Founder & Managing Director, JuliGerm (Pty) Ltd, Lesotho
• Mr. Terry Winograd, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Stanford University, United States of America

Performer: Ms. Noemi Beza, Singer-Songwriter, Switzerland