The level of IP protection offered to the IT industry is 36% lower in the EU than in the US, according to a new statistical index that assesses the strength of the IP environment in 10 jurisdictions.

The IP-IT Index, compiled by the Stockholm Network and the Progress & Freedom Foundation, measured IP protection by scoring each country in four categories that are particularly relevant to the IT industry.

The categories were: term of exclusivity; scope and coverage of essential components; strength of exclusivity; and enforcement. Each of these was divided into several subcategories.

Each category was scored between 0 and 1, giving a total score of between 0 and 4. The US scored highest, with 3.92, followed by Singapore with 3.73.

But the EU had the lowest score (2.47) behind Brazil (2.84) and Japan (2.90). The EU score was significantly lower than some of its member states, such as Germany (3.59), the UK (3.50) and France (3.31).

Speaking at the launch of the IP-IT Index in Brussels on November 14, Meir Pugatch, of the University of Haifa and head of the Stockholm Network's IP and Competition Programme, pointed to several reasons why the EU scored low in the index. These include the lack of protection for computer-implemented inventions; the fact that refusal to license is treated as an abuse of competition; and the fact that EU procurement policies favour open source over proprietary technology.

The full results of the IP-IT Index will be published in the December/January issue of MIP.

The full methodology of the IP-IT Index was published in the July/August issue of MIP.