US chamber ranks India 29th on IP Index

The US Chamber of Commerce has ranked India 29th among 30 economies in its annual International IP Index even as it acknowledged that it has made "measurable and sustainable progression" on intellectual property rights.

The Index released by the chamber's Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) Wednesday found that 20 of the 30 economies improved their scores from last year with India moving up one notch from its position at the bottom.

The improvement shows that "leaders in both developing and developed economies increasingly recognise the connection between effective intellectual property protection and achieving their greatest economic potential", said David Hirschmann, president and CEO of GIPC.

Thailand received the lowest ranking, while the US received the highest in the Index based on 30 measurable criteria critical to innovation, including patent, copyright and trademark protections, enforcement, and engagement in international treaties.

Noting that India has improved its overall score from previous editions to 7.23, rising to 24 percent of the total possible score, the GIPC said despite "measurable and sustainable progression", it still poses "significant challenges to rights holders across the board".

The chamber also noted that the Narendra Modi administration's national intellectual property rights (IPR) think tank recently released the Draft National IPR Policy, which recognised the fundamental links between IP, innovation, and the successful development of innovative products.

Additionally, the formation of a high-level IP working group as part of the Trade Policy Forum has the potential to elicit measurable and sustainable changes to India's IP system, it said.

Noting that India's overall score is still below a quarter of the available score, the GIPC listed a number of concerns that continue to exist:

* India's patentability requirements remain outside established international best practices; there is a lack of specific IP rights for the life sciences sector.

* A challenging enforcement environment, with corresponding high levels of physical and online piracy, persists in India.

* India is not a contracting party to any of the international treaties included in the GIPC Index, nor has India concluded a FTA with substantial IP provisions since acceding to the TRIPS Agreement.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)