According to the newly published report of the Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC), a department of the US Chamber of Commerce, Germany belongs to the leading nations worldwide when it comes to protecting intellectual property, as it did in the previous year. In the report – which has now been published for the fourth time – 38 countries were evaluated based on various criteria regarding protection for patents, copyrights and trademarks, trade secrets and market access, as well as enforcement and participation in international treaties.
In the overall assessment, Germany took third place, behind the US and Great Britain. In the category “Enforcement,” Germany even moved up in comparison to last year (see our German-language report) and is now on second place. Only Great Britain performed better in this category.
Apart from Germany and Great Britain, France and Switzerland also counted among the strongly-performing European nations, securing places among the top 10. In many other countries, however, the report identified significant deficiences in IP protection.
“This year’s Index illustrates that many countries embraced the upward momentum in the global intellectual property environment, and continued to take steps to improve their IP systems,” explained David Hirschmann, President and Chairman of the Board of the GIPC. “The U.S. Chamber Index provides economies with a roadmap to furthering this legal framework. Countries should look at the Index and incorporate the infinite possibilities that exist to improve their IP environment to encourage the next greatest innovation takes place on their soil.”
