In January 2017, it was expected that India’s rank may improve in the International Intellectual Property Index due to the introduction of new National IPR policy. Good news is that it has indeed improved due to the addition of systemic efficiency according to the list released by United States Chamber of Commerce. Last year, India was at near the bottom of the index with a rank of 43 out of total 45 participating global economies, but the ranking has increased substantially and it has now been ranked at 44th position among the 50 participating global economies.
The Intellectual Property (IP) index released by US chamber of commerce and the credit for the improvement in the ranking of India goes to the National IPR policy which added to its systemic efficiency. According to the report made by the Global Innovation Policy Centre (GIPC) of the United States Chamber of Commerce, India’s overall score has increased from 25% in the fifth edition of the index to 30% in the sixth edition. In the fifth edition, it was 8.75 out of 35 and in the sixth edition, it has increased substantially to 12.03 out of 40. The improvements are seen as massive for such a developing country like India, but it still ranks near the bottom of the list with securing 44th position out of total 50 participating global economies.
According to Patrick Kilbride, India has broken free from being in the last 10% of economies for the first time and this clearly shows that the country is on the move. He added that the improvements made by India represented the largest percentage improvement made by any country.
The improvements, however, have not been able to steer India from the bottom of the list as it still ranks 44 out of 50 countries. Last year, with an overall score of 8.4 points, India ranked at a 43rd position out of 45 countries.
The report said that the new ranking of India reflected a strong performance in the new indicators as well as the positive efforts on the patentability of computer-related inventions and registration process. The US is at the top of the list with 37.98 points with the UK closely following with 37.97 points and Sweden securing third place with 37.03 points.
Last year in July 2017, India issued Guidelines on the Examination of Computer-Related Inventions- the reports said- it improved the patentability environment for technological innovations. The Indian government had also created technical training programmes and IP awareness workshops for enforcement agencies. Those implemented key deliverables of the National Intellectual Property (IP) Rights Policy. The reports suggested that India still needed to add meaningful reforms to compliments the policies.
India has demonstrated a long-standing and clear commitment to increasing awareness of the importance of IP rights and respect for creators and innovators in what is otherwise a very challenging environment for IP rights holders. The report noted that India still has a long way to go.
The US Chamber of Commerce report analyses the intellectual property (IP) climate in 50 world economies based on 40 unique indicators that benchmark activity critical to innovation development surrounding trade secrets protection, copyright, trademark, and patent.
