WIPO: RECONCILING GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH THE GLOBAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FRAMEWORK

The World Intellectual Property Organization is the United Nations specialised agency responsible for the protection of intellectual property and the promotion of creative activity across the globe. WIPO administers more than two dozen international treaties, including the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and serves as the principal forum for the negotiation of new norms in patents, trademarks, copyright, and traditional knowledge.

Delegates will be asked to navigate the perennial tension at the heart of intellectual property: the incentive to create on the one hand, and the public interest in access on the other. The committee will consider the role of compulsory licensing in public health emergencies, the protection of traditional cultural expressions, the implications of generative artificial intelligence for authorship and inventorship, and the development needs of low- and middle-income economies.

WIPO is a committee where economic argument, legal craft, and ethical reasoning meet — and where the smallest definitional choice can shape an entire industry.