- within Technology, Consumer Protection and Real Estate and Construction topic(s)
- with readers working within the Law Firm industries
Introduction
Aimed at establishing a more inclusive and sustainable global governance system, particularly in the Global South, The Rio de Janeiro Declaration, 2025, and the BRICS IP Cooperation seek to promote innovation and face the challenges of artificial intelligence from a range of dynamic area, including ethical development, strong regulatory frameworks, and better collaboration among the member countries.1
The Declaration took place from July 6-7, 2025 under the theme 'Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.' It served as a critical space for discussions on the future of the global economy and innovation.2 The declaration covered many discussions that were relevant to strengthen multilateralism, responses to global governance, as well as to promote peace and international stability. It also addressed challenges regarding intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI).
AI Challenges & IP Cooperation
The BRICS, 2025, explicitly commented on AI being a significant opportunity for growth towards a future with prosperity in the sharing of values in action. The need for global AI governance to address the risks of AI and the needs for the countries in the Global South was also highlighted. The Declaration stressed the importance of a global consensus approach for thinking about global AI governance based on shared value, building trust, addressing risks, and facilitating broad and inclusive international collaboration and access, including building up developing countries' capacities with a unique role for the United Nations.3 To help foster a constructive debate, the BRICS Leaders' Statement on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence was agreed to advance responsible development, deployment and use of AI technologies for sustainable development and inclusive growth, as well as highlighted that it still adheres to national regulatory frameworks, national security under the UN Charter to respect state sovereignty. The Declaration also highlighted the challenge of AI regarding the misappropriation and misrepresentation of knowledge and cultural values within AI modelling.
With respect to intellectual property, the Rio Chapter encourages collaboration among BRICS IP Offices to improve awareness and training to realise IP as a key enabler for economic and social development. It also referenced the adoption of WIPO Treaties, including those on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, and the Riyadh Design Law Treaty. In addition, the declaration recognised the challenge of protecting IP rights in the digital environment and the need to safeguard fair remuneration for rights holders.4
BRICS IP Cooperation
BRICS IP Cooperation began with the Informal Heads Consultation of IP BRICS in Geneva, Switzerland in 2012. It seeks to elevate the worth of intellectual property and strengthen its role in economic development and growth in the member states.5 The main goal of BRICS IP cooperation is to encourage intellectual property protection while sharing good management processes, and exchanging best practices. This involves, stimulating research results protection, reducing cost of IP protection in each country and broadening steps to protect and disseminate new technologies; creating specific mechanism to facilitate patent protection in each BRICS country; and promoting opportunities for transferring technologies and research results produced in academic institutions, for example, by encouraging offers of protected technologies in Science and Technology as provided from think-institutional settings to companies in BRICS countries, and promoting production of multilingual dissemination materials and training of professionals for active offers, and partner contact.
This cooperation will give offers of information about the knowledge and technology being made available for licensing in replicated knowledge (in shared mechanism like online platforms) and can continue to guide the cooperation with shared chances/activities, among primarily Technology Transfer Centres but also Technology Areas of BRICS co-operative projects, as well as look to help where can make recommendations for some time off market and less cost for scaling up knowledge and technologies from BRICS collaborative projects.6
Capacity building is a major activity, including the organisation of joint training courses for managers and experts of the Knowledge & Technology Transfer Centres. This includes postgraduate training, professional qualifications via short courses or modules and webinars on specific aspects in technology transfer, for example, technology valuation and patent analytics and workshops for policymakers on lessons learned and best practices in technology transfer and university spin-offs. The creation of a common intellectual property assets and knowledge or technology transfer opportunity database shared between institutions and companies in each BRICS is likewise an essential activity.
Addressing AI Challenges through BRICS IP Cooperation
BRICS countries are working on AI challenges as part of intellectual property cooperation, while also thinking about how to develop appropriate regulations and ways to work together. They look at AI as an important catalyst for economic growth, as a contributor to the welfare of society, and as a driver for global cooperation. The establishment of BRICS was to promote an agenda of pooling their domestic policy efforts and working together to address a range of global challenges. In the present scenario, they see developing appropriate regulatory frameworks and international cooperation as important to the development of ethical AI, and aim to be able to lead the development of international AI standards. These countries are also very concerned with implementing appropriate smart policies and creating conditions that support the development of AI technologies.7 This would include continuing cooperation on shared facial recognition systems, cross border data sharing, and developing regulatory frameworks and research ecosystems of cooperation. For example, China is contemplating a BRICS centre for freedom to collaborate on open technology development in cooperation.
Strategic Partnership & Initiative
The BRICS Declaration, expresses it's concerns on the development of the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). They argue that there should be equitable and multipolar distribution of governance, policy and AI research. It assumes a significant role in questioning the present global digital order and the concentration of power of big techs. They vocalise the need to reduce barriers to the development of AI-based tech by countries. The group discussed to establish a BRICS Multilateral Guarantees (BMG) initiative in response to emphasis on strengthening the finances for infrastructure and sustainable development. Building on this thought, they agreed on guidelines to develop the BMG within the NDB as a pilot initiative.8
Conclusion
With the advent of the Rio Declaration, 2025, in the backdrop of BRICS IP Cooperation, there is hope for an inclusive and sustainable governance regime for innovation processes, particularly in the Global South. The Declaration acknowledges the promise and peril of AI, calling attention to the importance of pursuing global governance based on common values, fairness, and respect for sovereignty. At the same time, interest in developing the intellectual property framework and increasing cooperation across member states demonstrates BRICS collective efforts to leverage innovation as an engine of economic and social development. The interfaces of AI governance with steps to protect intellectual property are important in safeguarding cultural values and rights of creators and enabling equitable access to innovation in technological development.
Overall, these initiatives suggest a change in strategy: BRICS countries are positioned not just as actors in global innovation, but also as norm-setters in the areas of technology governance and intellectual property, as they seek to balance innovation, capacity-building, and technology transfer, with responsibility, inclusion, sustainability and addressing gaps between developed and developing economies. RI Declaration is therefore seen as a template for leveraging AI and IP as vehicles of inclusive advancement, to build a future where the benefits of innovation are shared more equitably across nations.
Footnotes
1 Licks Attorneys, BRICS 2025: Licks Attorneys Joins the Debate on IP, Innovation, and Competition, Licks Att'ys, (5th Sept, 2025) https://www.lickslegal.com/news/brics-2025-licks-attorneys-joins-the-debate-on-ip-innovation-and-competition.
2 Tortilla con Sal, BRICS – Declaration of Rio de Janeiro July 6th 2025, Tortilla con Sal, (5th Sept, 2025), https://www.tortillaconsal.com/bitacora/node/7019.
3 BRICS Brasil 2025, BRICS leaders' statement on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence, (5th Sept, 2025), http://www.brics.utoronto.ca/docs/250706_BRICS_GGAI_DeclarationFinal.pdf
4 PIB Press Release, Rio de Janeiro Declaration- Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance, (5th Sept, 2025), https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2142786
5 IP BRICS, About the IP BRICS Cooperation Mechanism, IP BRICS (n.d.), (5th Sept, 2025), http://www.ipbrics.net/secondpage/about2024.html
6 BRICS Brasil 2025, Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance, (5th Sept, 2025), http://www.brics.utoronto.ca/docs/250706-BRICS_Leaders_Declaration_EN.pdf
7 BRICS Brasil 2025, Artificial Intelligence Governance in BRICS: Cooperation and Development for Social Inclusion, (5th Sept, 2025), https://brics.br/en/news/articles/artificial-intelligence-governance-in-brics-cooperation-and-development-for-social-inclusion
8 Data Privacy BR Research, Artificial Intelligence in Focus: A Comparative Analysis of the BRICS and FOC Declarations on AI Governance, (5th Sept, 2025), https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/artificial-intelligence-in-focus-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-brics-and-foc-declarations-on-ai-governance/
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
