Insights

As the EU AI Act moves deeper into its staged implementation, the compliance focus around general-purpose AI models is shifting from abstract policy debate to operational proof. The Commission has already issued the template for the public summary of training content for GPAI models, and the follow-on consultation on machine-readable text-and-data-mining opt-out protocols has pushed copyright compliance closer to the level of technical standards, logging practices and evidence design.

That is why the market conversation is no longer just about whether AI providers can rely on broad training assumptions. The harder question is whether they can explain where training data came from, how rights reservations were identified, and what records exist to show that exclusions, licences and updates were actually respected. On the rightsholder side, the issue is equally strategic: the value lies not only in suing later, but in expressing rights reservations, licensing terms and evidentiary timestamps in forms that machines, regulators and counterparties can all work with.

In his message for World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2026, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) Director-General John Asein confirmed that the Federal Executive Council has approved the country’s first-ever National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy, giving Nigeria a unified national framework for IP protection, commercialization and institutional coordination. At the same time, the NCC said it is intensifying enforcement under the Copyright Act 2022 against illegal streaming, cable piracy and unauthorized public exhibitions, with sports broadcasting rights moving closer to the center of its enforcement agenda.

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in South Africa has made clear that all patents and patents of addition granted from January 2026 onward will be issued electronically. These Digital Letters Patent include a QR code for verification of key details such as the patent number, patentee, grant date and inventor, while the complete specification and related documents are to be accessed separately through the CIPC IP Online portal. At the same time, CIPC has also confirmed that the Nice Classification 13th Edition applies to all trademark specifications from January 1, 2026.

Read together, the two moves show South Africa pushing both certificate digitization and classification modernization at the same time. For patent applicants and right holders, digital certificates should make verification, record-keeping and cross-border circulation easier; for trademark filers, Nice 13, read alongside WIPO’s 2026 classification guidance, points toward a greater need for precise and classifiable wording for AI-related services, virtual goods and other emerging digital offerings. That means broadly drafted specifications may now face more friction in formal examination and classification discussions.

As China’s National Intellectual Property Publicity Week ran through April 20–26, CNIPA further clarified the latest direction of the Trademark Law revision. The draft continues to target malicious trademark filings, the clean-up of unused or hoarded marks, and the registration of new subject matter such as motion marks. In practice, two provisions are drawing the most attention: draft Article 18, which would refuse applications filed without a genuine intent to use and clearly beyond normal business needs, and draft Article 53, which would allow administrative penalties of up to RMB 100,000 for malicious applications that cause negative impact.

For brand owners, the message is becoming harder to ignore. The next phase of Chinese trademark practice may no longer focus only on whether a filing is technically registrable, but also on whether the applicant can justify a real business rationale and a credible path to use. That puts defensive filings, bulk stockpiling and overly aggressive registration strategies under greater pressure, while also showing that China is trying to modernize its trademark regime by opening the door to motion marks without loosening scrutiny over filing abuse.

By late April 2026, the UK government is still maintaining the position set out in its 18 March Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report: the previously favoured route of a broad text and data mining (TDM) exception combined with a rightsholder opt-out is no longer its preferred option. In practical terms, that means the UK has stepped back from giving AI training a fast, low-friction copyright pathway through legislation.

Just as important, the government has not moved to the opposite extreme. It has openly said that it currently has “no preferred option” and is instead leaning toward more balanced tools such as market-led licensing, training transparency, technical standards and AI output labelling. For the creative industries, that is at least a temporary brake on the idea of “broad exception first, corrections later”; for AI companies, it means the next phase of competition will depend not only on model capability, but also on how well they can evidence data provenance, rights clearance and credible compliance.

WIPO announced on April 20, 2026 that Madrid e-Filing is now available in Brazil. Brazil is the first country in Latin America to offer the service and the latest Madrid System member to join the Madrid e-Filing network, bringing the total number of participating members to 41. Through Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), applicants can now file international trademark applications online and handle subsequent communications and irregularity responses in a more direct digital workflow.