The IP world is getting smaller

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

The IP world is getting smaller

The UK government might celebrate coming first of an index of IP regimes, and India might be disappointed to rank last. But what’s really notable is the narrowing gap between top and bottom

gipitable-200.bmp

As we reported yesterday, law firm Taylor Wessing has published the fourth edition of its Global IP Index, which compares the IP regimes in 36 countries.

Of course, the first thing we all look for is who’s high, who’s low, who’s up and who’s down. (Expect some celebration from UK government ministers at its top rank – Business Secretary Vince Cable has been known to cite the report before.)

But when you look closer at the Index, and in particular compare it with the three previous iterations, what’s notable is that generally speaking the gap between countries is narrowing.

The methodology of the Index is slightly complex, but in summary each country is assigned a rating between 0 and 1000. In 2011, in GIPI 3, the top rating was 751 (Germany) and the bottom was 537 (India). In GIPI 4, the top rating is 657 (UK) and the bottom is 565 (India, again).

In other words, the gap between top and bottom has narrowed significantly from 214 to 92 points, with the lower-ranked countries climbing up considerably and the top-ranked ones remaining stable or even declining a bit. And that is despite the addition of 12 new countries.

I asked Roland Mallinson, the Taylor Wessing partner who has coordinated the GIPI since its inception, what he made of this. He believes the narrowing spread is partly due to harmonisation (of law and enforcement) and partly that “expectations have risen” due to globalisation, with offices, lawyers and courts in developing countries striving to improve.

It’s certainly true that the past couple of years have seen some prominent initiatives towards harmonisation (though we are yet to see the effect of many of these). Consider the US America Invents Act, the EU Unitary Patent/UPC and the recently announced amendments to China’s Trade Mark Law.

gipi4-200.bmp

More generally, as Roland points out, membership of international treaties is growing. We have written extensively about the expansion of the Madrid System for trade marks, and it’s notable that New Zealand, which joined Madrid last year, rose up six places in the GIPI trade mark ranking this year. Similarly, systems such as the PCT and the Hague Agreement (for design rights) are growing (with the US, China, Korea, Japan and Russia all expected to join the latter soon).

You wouldn’t want to overstate things: there are still a lot of areas where harmonisation can be improved, and least-developed countries were recently granted an eight-year extension to comply with the TRIPs Agreement. But the IP Index suggests users perceive that, in IP terms, the world is getting smaller – and that must be welcome.

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Attorneys explain why there are early signs that the US Supreme Court could rule in favour of ISP Cox in a copyright dispute
A swathe of UPC-related hires suggests firms are taking the forum seriously, as questions over the transitional stage begin
A win for Nintendo in China and King & Spalding hiring a prominent patent litigator were also among the top talking points
Rebecca Newman at Addleshaw Goddard, who live-reported on the seminal dispute, unpicks the trials and tribulations of the case and considers its impact
Attorneys predict how Lululemon’s trade dress and design patent suit against Costco could play out
Lawyers at Linklaters analyse some of the key UPC trends so far, and look ahead to life beyond the transition period
David Rodrigues, who previously worked at an IP boutique, said he may become more involved in transactional work at his new firm
Indian smartphone maker Lava must pay $2.3 million as a security deposit for past sales, as its dispute with Dolby over audio coding SEPs plays out
Powell Gilbert’s opening in Düsseldorf, complete with a new partner hire, continues this summer’s trend of UPC-related lateral movement
IP leaders at Brandsmiths and Bird & Bird, who were on opposing sides at the UK Supreme Court in Iconix v Dream Pairs, unpick the landmark case and its ramifications
Gift this article