The United States was once again the top-ranked country in overall score in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s annual Global IP Index for 2018, but the rankings are closer than ever. This year, the United States edged out the United Kingdom by a mere .01 points on the Chamber scale. The U.S. position was helped by improved scores relating to copyrights and trademarks, but was dragged down as the U.S. patent ranking decreased for the sixth consecutive year as the result of a patent climate that the Chamber characterizes as causing “considerable uncertainty for innovators.”
While the United States continues to do well overall, patent protection continues to be problematic. In 2017, the U.S. ranked 10th worldwide in terms of offering patent protection to innovators. This year, the U.S. fell out of the top 10, tumbling to a tie for 12th with Italy. Countries ahead of the United States for patent protection are (in order from first place on the Chamber patent index): Signapore, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. See page 35 of the Chamber report.
While the U.S. continues to take steps backwards in terms of the overall patent landscape, a number of countries around the world have taken positive steps forward, including countries you might not ordinarily consider as patent-friendly jurisdictions. Canada, China, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the Ukraine all improved their scores relative to patent protection over the 2017 Chamber report. See page 22 of the Chamber report. Compared to 2017, China dramatically improved its score, rising from a score of 4.35 (out of 8) in 2017 to a score of 5.5 (out of 8) in 2018.
With a decrease in the score relative to patent protection from 2017 to 2018, the United States joins a handful of other countries that are not thought of as being particularly intellectual-property friendly. Those countries having a weaker performance relative to patents in 2018 include the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, Columbia, Chile and Australia. See page 22 of the Chamber report.
The Chamber report notes that the U.S. score for patent protection has fallen lower in each of the successive editions of these Chamber rankings. To justify the patent ranking given to the United States, the Chamber cited to Supreme Court decisions on patent eligibility (i.e., Mayo, Myriad, and Alice), and in particular to recent interpretations of those cases and guidance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Chamber also expressed concern over how easy it has become to challenge patents in post-grant proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Tags: patent, patent system, patents, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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