Piracy rise: India Ranks 44 out of 50 on Global Intellectual Property Index

India’s score increases in the Global Intellectual Property Index, according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce report.

India’s overall score has increased from 25 per cent in the 5th edition of the Global Intellectual Property (IP) Index to 30 per cent in the latest edition, bringing it to rank 44 out of 50, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report released on Feb. 8. The U.S. agency has attributed the positive change on reform efforts on patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions (CII) and registration procedures of well-known marks.

India, for the first time, rose from the bottom 10 per cent of economies measured, due to the passage of guidelines to improve the patentability environment for technological innovations, and implementation of some tenets of the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. Earlier, India’s rank was 43 out of 45. The country’s score, however, continues to suggest that additional, meaningful reforms are needed, the report said.

The “Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs)” was revised in July 2017 in India and it included that there would be no requirement of innovation in hardware. “Local legal analysis suggests that although they do not carry the force of primary or secondary legislation, these new guidelines should create more certainty for innovators in the computer software space,” the report said.

The U.S. agency, calling the Indian copyright environment as “challenging,” also added that “rights holders are increasingly able to defend and enforce their copyrights through injunctive relief. Since 2012, there have been a number of cases in which access to websites offering pirated and infringing content — including notorious international sites like The Pirate Bay — has been disabled through court orders.”

Taking note of court injunctions given in India for disabling certain URLs, the report said that India still has a long way to go. “Indian rights holders suffer as much at the hand of online piracy as do foreign entities. In fact, one of the major cases brought to the High Court involved the illegal broadcasting of Indian cricket matches on non-sanctioned websites,” the report said.

The report also added that while the office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) permits companies to register their marks since May 2017, there is no clarity over what the supporting documents should be.

Among the top 10 countries in the global intellectual property index are the United States, United Kingdom, EU economies, Singapore and Japan.