Think of every activity that turns ideas into income: filmmaking, fashion, music, advertising, video-game design, crafts, architecture, even TikTok dance tutorials. According to UN Trade (UNCTAD), these industries now contribute 0.5 % – 7.3 % of national GDP and up to 12.5 % of employment around the globe.

When a life-saving drug, vaccine or diagnostic test appears, two opposite needs collide. Governments and patients want fast, low-cost access everywhere, yet inventors and investors want to recoup the billions spent on R &D. Intellectual-property (IP) rules sit at the centre of that tension, determining who can make the product, where, how soon and at what price. Getting the balance wrong has real-world consequences: in 2022, for example, the World Health Organization (WHO) still recorded primary COVID-19 vaccination rates below 25 % in many low-income countries while high-income states considered fourth boosters. apps.who.int

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation has radically transformed how we conceive art, literature, music, and even journalism. Platforms capable of automatically generating text, images, videos, and music—such as ChatGPT, DALL·E, Midjourney, or Sora—have opened up unprecedented possibilities for innovation. However, this technological revolution has raised a series of legal and ethical challenges that question the very foundations of traditional copyright law.