Justice Prathiba Singh of the Delhi High Court on Friday said that intellectual property would have to reinvent itself in the context of artificial intelligence (AI), emphasising that existing IP frameworks were built to reward human creativity and are now being challenged by the rise of “artificial intellect.”
Justice Singh was speaking at the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.
She was speaking at a session titled Catalyzing Global Investment for Equitable and Responsible AI in Health, held at Bharat Mandapam as part of the summit organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and IndiaAI.
“Do we have to rewrite the TRIPS agreement (The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)? Do we have to rewrite or renegotiate the WTO treaties? Do we have to re-enact patent laws across countries?” she asked.
She also raised unresolved questions around inventorship and ownership of AI-generated innovation.
“Do we give joint authorship? Do we give joint ownership? What kind of extent of human intervention is needed for a patent to be granted in the area of artificial intelligence?”
Justice Singh also revealed that she was approached by a World Health Organization (WHO) team in September 2024 to co-chair the drafting of a global guidance document on legal considerations in AI and health.
“There is no uniform based document or foundational principles which exist in the context of AI and health."
She said that the draft framework focuses on legal standards, regulatory oversight and institutional capacity building.
“It is so important that we do institution building not on the glittery AI tools...but on the regulatory systems and frameworks that countries need to establish.”
Justice Singh highlighted key regulatory challenges including data protection, privacy, liability frameworks, patient rights and cross-border compliance, stressing the need for uniform global standards.
“There are liability frameworks that need to be looked into…there needs to be some uniform standards that we need to have."
Turning to India’s digital public infrastructure model, Justice Singh suggested the possibility of an India Health Stack to enable innovation under regulatory oversight.
She noted that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has already connected thousands of hospitals through a next-generation system.
Concluding her remarks, Justice Singh stressed that AI in healthcare must remain patient-centric and subject to human supervision.
“We need to have a patient centric approach… with human oversight because without human oversight, AI and health will be a failure.”