Aliyev says rapid AI growth creates new tasks for intellectual property systems

President Ilham Aliyev said on 12 October 2026 that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and digitalisation is "determining new tasks" for intellectual property systems, in a message to the 2nd Meeting of the Heads of Intellectual Property Institutions of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) member states, held in Baku, according to the Azerbaijan Press Agency (APA). Trend.az confirmed the same message the same day.

What Aliyev told the meeting

• Aliyev said technological progress must be used effectively alongside "reliable protection for the rights of authors and inventors," while keeping innovation promotion and society's interests in balance, APA reported.
• The message was addressed to the second such OTS meeting, organised by the Intellectual Property Agency of Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan Respublikasının Əqli Mülkiyyət Agentliyi) and held in Baku during Azerbaijan's current OTS chairmanship, Trend.az reported.
• Member-state officials signed the Joint Declaration of the 2nd Meeting of Heads of Intellectual Property Agencies of the OTS Member States in Baku on 12 October, Trend.az said.
• OTS Deputy Secretary-General Ömer Kocaman said cooperation on intellectual property is "vital to broader efforts to build a future defined by innovation and enduring competitiveness," as knowledge and intellectual capital become primary sources of economic power, according to Trend.az.

Why it matters

Aliyev's message is a presidential-level policy signal, not a specific intellectual-property law change: he named no draft legislation, AI-authorship rule or timeline for Azerbaijan's own patent and copyright framework. But linking AI's growth explicitly to intellectual-property policy, at an event Azerbaijan organised during its OTS chairmanship, shows the government folding AI language into an institutional track — regional IP cooperation — that had, until now, run separately from its AI-specific strategy documents.

What it means for Azerbaijani institutions

Azerbaijan's Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2025-2028 was approved by presidential decree and announced on 19 March 2025; its priority actions include "creation of a normative and legal framework for responsible and ethical AI," according to Trend.az. Aliyev's message to the OTS meeting suggests intellectual-property rules sit inside that same legal-framework effort: for AI developers, startups and research institutions operating in Azerbaijan, the open question the Baku meeting raises — but does not yet answer — is how authorship and patent rights for AI-assisted work will be defined domestically. Neither APA nor Trend.az reported a timeline or draft text for any such rule.