The second annual Global IP Index, published today by Taylor Wessing, ranks 24 jurisdictions based on both empirical data such as filing and litigation statistics and responses from nearly 500 IP professionals.
The survey was compiled by Z/Yen.
For the second year running, the UK has the highest overall rating, closely followed by Germany and the US. This year, Australia and the Netherlands join these three countries in the top tier.
The survey covers trade marks, patents and copyright and this year designs and domain names were added.
The UK is ranked first for trade marks, patents and domains. Germany is ranked top for designs and the US for copyright.
The BRIC countries dominate the bottom tier of the 24 countries surveyed in most categories. In the overall rankings, they are joined by Poland, which falls five places since last year, and Turkey, which is listed for the first time.
Overall, scores for most countries have improved since last year. Mexico’s score went up 67 points to 617 (out of 1,000) while Japan’s went up 31 to 690. Russia’s score rose 87 points to 567, but it was still third from bottom, ahead of only Brazil, India and China.
Launching the report today, Taylor Wessing partner Roland Mallinson said this year’s survey included a specific question on the cost-effectiveness of enforcement but that “this seems to have had relatively little impact on the overall result”.
He predicted that belt-tightening might make cost-effectiveness more important in the future, which might have an impact on the rankings of expensive countries such as the US and UK.
For the first time this year, the survey also covered the pan-European systems – OHIM and the EPO. They were not included in the overall ranking as the data was not comparable, but Mallinson said that had they been included they would rank about seventh.
“The recent fee changes at OHIM make the CTM more cost-effective and that might improve its ranking. But there is still a problem of quality and consistency and oppositions are a bit of a lottery,” he explained.
He added that the EPO received very high rankings from some people, and very low rankings from others.
The June issue of Managing IP, to be published next month, will include an article looking at the findings of the Index. The full results and analysis can be seen online.
