Happy World Intellectual Property Day! 🏅

26 April 2026 · World Intellectual Property Day

Today, 26 April, the world celebrates World Intellectual Property Day — an annual event established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000. The date marks the anniversary of the WIPO Convention entering into force on 26 April 1970.

Over the past 25 years, the celebration has grown to encompass more than 189 WIPO member states, with hundreds of conferences, exhibitions and educational events held worldwide every year.

The 2026 theme — "IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate!" — reflects the deep connection between IP protection and the global sports industry. Sport is far more than athletes and stadiums: it encompasses patents on performance equipment, trademarks of clubs and leagues, copyright in broadcasts, athletes' name-image-likeness (NIL) rights, and industrial designs for kit and gear.

The theme aligns with the year of the FIFA World Cup 2026 — the flagship sporting event of the quadrennium, surrounded by a vast portfolio of IP assets: from official marks and licensed merchandise to ball-tracking algorithms and VAR technology.

What is trending in IP right now:

Artificial intelligence and authorship. Who is the author of a work created by generative AI? IP offices worldwide — including Rospatent — are actively developing their positions. WIPO has launched a broad policy dialogue on this issue.

Patents in sports technology. Smart footwear, helmet sensors, athlete biometric systems — all are being patented at record pace. WIPO data shows consistent growth in filings across sports-related technology classes.

NIL — Name, Image, Likeness. Athletes' rights to commercialise their own identity are becoming a distinct branch of IP practice, simultaneously involving contract work, trademark registration and copyright.

Broadcast anti-piracy. Illegal streaming of live sports causes multi-billion-dollar losses to rights-holders. Watermarking, geo-blocking and real-time enforcement tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Our firm congratulates colleagues, clients and partners on this day. Intellectual property is not a formality: it is the tool that gives inventors, creators and entrepreneurs the power to build the future — in sport, the arts, science and business.

#WorldIPDay #IPandSports #WIPO #Innovation