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Weak patent protection and inadequate patent mechanisms continued to weigh on India, which remained at the 37th position amongst 38 countries in the International Intellectual Property Index released by the US Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
“Patent protection in India remains outside of international best practices, and Indian law does not provide adequate enforcement mechanisms to effectively combat online piracy… India’s overall score has decreased to 7.05 in the fourth edition as compared to 7.23 in the third edition,” it said in a statement.
India’s ranking would have increased if the government had not suspended implementation of the ‘Final Guidelines for Computer-related Inventions’, it added.
The country has remained at the bottom of the index for the fourth consecutive year. In 2015, it had moved one notch higher from the last position to the second last.
In the 2016 index, the US bagged the top position, followed by the UK, Germany, France and Sweden while Venezuela was at the bottom and ranked a poor 38.
Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made various important announcements on intellectual property (IP) rights and the need for India to align with international standards, the report, however, said that a number of concerns remain.
“India’s patentability requirements remain outside established international best practices with 2015 rulings confirming long-standing interpretations,” it said, adding that there is also a lack of specific IP rights for the life sciences sector.
Piracy challenge Further, the enforcement environment is challenging with high levels of physical and online piracy.
Another issue highlighted by the report was that India is neither a contracting party to any of the international treaties included in the IP Index nor has it concluded a free-trade agreement with substantial IP provisions since acceding to the TRIPS agreement.
The US Chamber International IP Index ranked 38 economies that comprise nearly 85 per cent of the global gross domestic product based on 30 measurable criteria critical to innovation, including, patent, copyright and trademark protections.
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