Since the turn of the millennium, the global economy has been undergoing a process of transformation at an unprecedented pace, driven primarily by the development of new technologies. These developments threaten to outpace the international regulatory framework as a whole, and the framework for international trade and intellectual property rights governed by the World Trade Organization in particular. The quest for an adequate future regulatory framework governing the global economy goes hand in hand with the formulation of various concepts designed to identify the novel dynamics characterizing the global economy in the twenty-first century. These concepts include the “knowledge-based”, “network”, “digital” or “sharing” economy. Among these concepts, this chapter argues, the “creative economy” has emerged as the most comprehensive and universal, because it not only accounts for past developments, but also provides the optimal conceptual and cognitive approach to account for present and future challenges, as well as possibly even determining the future itself.