International Intellectual Property Index- Highlights

Annual edition of ‘International Intellectual Property (IP)’ was released on March 23, 2021. India was ranked 40 among 53 global economies in the ninth IP index.

International Intellectual Property Index

The Index is released annually by ‘US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Centre (GIPC)’.  It evaluates Intellectual Property rights across 53 global economies on the basis of patent, commercialisation of IP assets, copyright policies and ratification of international treaties.

Key Findings

• As per index, overall global IP environment had improved in 2020. Positive score was increased in 32 economies of the 53 economies.
• India was ranked 40th in 2020. It has scored 38.4 out of 100 on 50 intellectual property-related indicators.
• Overall score of India has increased from 36.04 per cent in seventh edition to 38.46 per cent in eighth edition.
• Among BRICS countries, India registered the second-highest growth in nine editions with an overall improvement of over 13 per cent.

India’s Performance

India performance in the index has improved over past few years. Country has made several positive efforts which increased the score because of stronger enforcement efforts and precedent-setting court cases of copyright and trademark infringement.

Concerns

Rights-holders in India still face substantive challenge with respect to patenting environment in which policy framework of India continues to deny patent eligibility to various innovations.

Intellectual property (IP)

It is a category of property which includes intangible creations of human intellect. Well-known types of IP are patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. Modern concept of intellectual property developed in England during 17th and 18th centuries. Intellectual property became a commonplace in world’s legal systems in 20^th century. Intellectual property law is enforced to encourage creation of a variety of intellectual goods. Statute of Monopolies (1624) is regarded as origin of patent law and British Statute of Anne (1710) is regarded as origin of copyright.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2021