Strengthening of patent protection covers five categories (scope of inventions covered; membership in international treaties; duration of protection; enforcement mechanisms; restrictions). Topical affs must remove a component of the patent protection index, the gold standard for measuring IPR strength.

Park ’8 [Walter G.; May; Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at American University; Research Policy, “International patent protection: 1960–2005,” Volume 37, Issue 4]

The global trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement of 1995 has intensified interest in, and research on, the economics of intellectual property protection. Researchers and policymakers, for example, have been interested in the extent to which stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) influence R&D and innovation, international trade and technology transfer, productivity growth, and national and global welfare.1

Empirical work often relies on a quantifiable measure of the shifts in intellectual property regimes. In Ginarte and Park (1997), an index of patent rights was developed for 110 countries for 1960–1990 (broken down into 5 years intervals). The index is the unweighted sum of five separate scores for: coverage (inventions that are patentable); membership in international treaties; duration of protection; enforcement mechanisms; and restrictions (for example, compulsory licensing in the event that a patented invention is not sufficiently exploited). This index was designed to provide an indicator of the strength of patent protection, not the quality of patent systems.

However, the index is now over 15 years out of date. To better serve ongoing research, I have updated the index of patent rights to the year 2005 and included more countries (such as China and the East European countries, which were originally excluded because laws protecting industrial property were either non-existent or based on a different system, such as inventor certificates). In this note, I present the updated data, highlight the key developments underlying the changes in patent rights across countries, and discuss the possible applications of the data.

2. Updated patent rights index and key developments

Table 1 presents a summary of the scores by country. The Appendix A summarizes the scoring methodology. The present index incorporates the effects of recent national and global developments, most notably the TRIPS agreement, legislations dealing with emerging technologies such as software and biotechnology, and the revisions in national patent laws required to conform to international and regional agreements (such as the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA), European patent convention (EPC), African Regional industrial property organization (ARIPO), Cartagena agreement, among others).2

(Appendix A Attached)

Appendix A. Components and scoring method of patent rights index7

(1) Coverage Available Not available

Patentability of pharmaceuticals 1/8 0

Patentability of chemicals 1/8 0

Patentability of food 1/8 0

Patentability of surgical products 1/8 0

Patentability of microorganisms 1/8 0

Patentability of utility models 1/8 0

Patentability of software 1/8 0

Patentability of plant and animal varieties 1/8 0

(2) Membership in international treaties Signatory Not signatory

Paris convention and revisions 1/5 0

Patent cooperation treaty 1/5 0

Protection of new varieties (UPOV) 1/5 0

Budapest treaty (microorganism deposits) 1/5 0

Trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) 1/5 0

(3) Duration of protection Full Partial

1 0 < f < 1

(4) Enforcement mechanisms Available Not available

Preliminary (pre-trial) injunctions 1/3 0

Contributory infringement 1/3 0

Burden of proof reversal 1/3 0

(5) Restrictions on patent rights Does not exist Exists

Working requirements 1/3 0

Compulsory licensing 1/3 0

Revocation of patents 1/3 0

where f is the duration of protection as a fraction of 20 years from the date of application or 17 years from the date of grant (for grant-based patent systems). Overall score for patent rights index: sum of points under (1)–(5).