The article is devoted to consideration of the main stages of the development of legislation on the protection of intellectual property, first at the national level in Europe, and then at the international level. The importance of the creative community in the development of the first international documents on the protection of copyright and related rights is shown. The article reveals the question of the role of Russia in the pan-European process of registration of intellectual property rights. The process of harmonization and unification in the member states of the European Union, up to the adoption of Directive 2001/29 / EC on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, is considered.