The UK, Germany and the US have claimed the top scores in a survey of 22 countries and economies on their intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement records conducted by Taylor Wessing, writes the National Law Journal.
The firm's inaugural Global Intellectual Property Index (GIPI), released on 2 May, used a statistical analysis to rank jurisdictions in terms of patent, trademarks and copyright protections. Taylor Wessing worked with London research group Z/Yen, which has developed a number of other indices, to develop the index.
The rankings were based on responses to an online questionnaire and a range of factors affecting the IP climate, including the number of specialised intellectual property judges and lawyers relative to the population, the number of patent or trademark filings and the number of patents and trademarks granted and active.
The online survey tallied assessments of 9,333 patent jurisdictions from 341 chief excutives, IP lawyers, in-house counsel and law firm partners.
The index grouped jurisdictions into five tiers:
- tier one: the UK, US and Germany;
- tier two: the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and France;
- tier three: Israel, Japan, Spain, South Africa and South Korea;
- tier four: Poland, Dubai, Italy and Mexico; and
- tier five: India, Brazil, Russia and China.
Taylor Wessing noted that seven of the nine jurisdictions in tiers one and two of the index have legal systems based on common law. Yet Germany and the Netherlands, which both have civil code legal systems, rank in the top five in the patent, trademark and copyright indices.
The firm also noted that the size of a jurisdiction measured by gross domestic product has little effect on its IP competitiveness rankings.
Taylor Wessing managing partner Michael Frawley (pictured) said companies operating globally needed to safeguard their IP in both developed and developing economies.
He commented: "IP law is developing rapidly in order to meet the challenges of the ever-increasing change in technology and no jurisdiction can afford to be complacent about how its legal system accommodates these changes."
The National Law Journal is a US sister title of Legal Week.