International Intellectual Property Index

News:The U.S Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) has released the International Intellectual Property Index 2020.

Facts:

About the index:

• The index maps the Intellectual Property(IP) ecosystem in 53 global economies representing over 90% of global GDP.
• It uses 50 unique indicators which span across nine categories of protection namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, design rights, trade secrets, commercialization of IP assets, enforcement, systemic efficiency and membership and ratification of international treaties.

Key takeaways from the index:

• The US, the UK, Sweden, France and Germany remained the top five economies on the index.
• India has been ranked at 40th out of 53 countries in the index.It was placed at 36th position among 50 countries in 2019.

Challenges for India:The index has identified several challenges for India. Some of them are:

• Patentability requirements
• patent enforcement
• compulsory licensing
• patent opposition
• regulatory data protection 
• transparency in reporting seizures by customs among others.