Taylor Wessing Global Intellectual Property Index 2009

Appendix C: Instrumental Factors

The instrumental factors are provided by a number of reputable organisations. The majority of the indices are publicly available and regularly updated. In the following descriptive list we mark those that have been updated since the first GIPI survey and the ones that were added in the following manner:

> - Updated since GIPI 1
+ - A new index that was not used in GIPI 1

Administrative & Economic Regulation - OECD

The analysis is based on summary indicators of product market regulation that measure the degree to which policies promote or inhibit competition. These are broadly divided in economic and administrative regulation barriers. The former include tariffs, regulatory barriers, discriminatory procedures, barriers to foreign ownership, public ownership and involvement in business operation by the state as well as barriers to competition such as antitrust exemptions and legal hurdles; the latter mainly reflect the country’s licenses and permits system, communication and simplification of rules and procedures as well as sector specific and overall administrative burdens.

Ease of Doing Business Index - World Bank >

This index ranks economies on the simple average of country percentile rankings on each of 10 key areas – starting a business, dealing with licences, employing workers, registering property, obtaining credit, investors’ protection, paying taxes, cross-border trading, enforcement of contracts and closing a business. Each indicator studies a different aspect of the business environment and country rankings vary, sometimes significantly, across indicator sets.

Opacity Index - Kurtzman Group >

The Index is a score between 0 and 100, which is aimed to reflect everyday business risk and is calculated by averaging the scores given to each of 5 sub-indices. It draws upon 65 objective variables from 41 sources including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Security Services Association, the International Country Risk Guide and individual country’s regulators. The sub-indices reflect corruption, efficacy of the legal system, deleterious economic policy, inadequate accounting and governance practices and detrimental regulatory structures.

Corruption Perception Index - Transparency International >

This index ranks more than 150 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The data is gathered from sources spanning the last 3 years, each providing a ranking of countries. The index reflects the views of business people and analysts from around the world, including experts who are residents in the countries evaluated. The surveys used in compiling this index ask questions that relate to the misuse of public power for private benefit. The sources do not distinguish between administrative and political corruption or between petty and grand corruption.

Index of Economic Freedom - The Heritage Foundation >

This index measures 183 countries against a list of 50 independent variables divided into 10 broad factors of economic freedom. The higher the score on a factor, the greater the level of government interference in the economy and the less economic freedom a country enjoys. The factors are trade policy, fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, capital flows and foreign investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulation and informal market activity.

Economic Freedom of the World Index - The Fraser Institute >

This index ranks 141 countries and its purpose is to bring the often forgotten topic of economic freedom into mainstream public debate. The index is divided into 5 components: size of government (Expenditure, Taxes and Enterprises); legal structure and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally and regulation of credit, labour and business.

Political Risk Score – Maplecroft Analysis

This instrumental factor is based on the analysis of Maplecroft, where countries are given scores based on analysis of the past, present and future political situation and the related effects on the investment climate. This measure of political risk is based on 2006 country data provided by the World Bank Institute. A composite indicator is derived from six separate WBI governance datasets: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.

Operational Risk Rating - Economist Intelligence Unit >

The Economist Intelligence Unit has developed an indicator of operational risk that monitors 150 countries and is updated every quarter or if certain events require it. The index is comprised of 10 indicators that have different weightings allocated according to their importance from a business point of view. The underlying categories are: macroeconomic; foreign trade and payments; financial; tax policy; legal and regulatory; security; political stability; government effectiveness; labour market; and infrastructure.

Super Growth Companies - Grant Thornton

A “Super Growth” company is one which has grown considerably more than the average measured against key indicators including turnover and employment. The Super Growth Companies Index ranks countries according to the proportion of Super Growth Companies in the country. This project forms part of the Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey (IBOS), which surveys more than 7000 business owners in 30 countries.

World Competitiveness Scoreboard – IMD >

This scoreboard presents an overall ranking for the 55 countries and regional economies covered by the World Competitiveness Yearbook. The economies are ranked from the most to the least competitive. The main factors underlining the index are economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Global Competitiveness Index - World Economic Forum >

This index ranks 131 economies accounting for more than 98% of world GDP. The Global Competitiveness Index rankings are drawn from a combination of publicly available hard data and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, together with its partners.

E - Readiness Score - Economist Intelligence Unit >

This score ranks countries according to the state of their information and communications technology (ICT) and the capability to its businesses, the government and consumers to utilise it. The index is comprised of nearly 100 criteria with different weightings that are grouped in 6 main categories – connectivity, business environment, social and cultural environment, legal environment, consumer and business adoption or the scale on which businesses and consumers use ICT. The latest survey includes 70 different countries.

Mastercard Global Network Connectivity – Mastercard >

This index is developed by experts in economics, sociology and urban studies. It classifies 75 world cities according to their significance in international commerce and as global and regional economic and cultural centres. It groups 43 indicators and 74 sub indicators with different weightings into 7 major factors:

Legal and political framework
Economic stability
Ease of doing business
Financial flow
Business centre
Knowledge creation and information flow
Liveability

Human Development Index - UN Development Programme >

This index is calculated for the 179 countries for which data is available and is the base used to determine whether a country is developed, developing or underdeveloped. The report ranks countries using the human development Index, which measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), knowledge and education (measured by the adult literacy rate) and a decent standard of living (measured by the natural logarithm of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity in USD).

Tertiary Education Graduates Ratio – The World Bank >

This instrumental factor measures the present and future composition of a country’s workforce in terms of skills. It represents the ratio of people that take tertiary education degrees as opposed to all of the country’s population at graduation age thus indicating the availability of people with higher education degrees as a share of the overall work force.

GFCI 5 - City of London >

The Global Financial Centres Index is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 18 thousand financial centre assessments from an online questionnaire together with over 60 indices. It is published twice a year by the City of London Corporation. The ranking is an aggregate of indices from five key areas: people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness.

Total Tax Rates - World Bank & PwC >

The Total Tax Rate measures the tax payable by a business in the second year of operation, expressed as a share of commercial profits. The total amount of taxes is the sum of all the different taxes payable after accounting for deductions and exemptions. The taxes withheld (such as sales tax or value added tax) but not paid by the company are excluded. The taxes included can be divided into five categories: profit or corporate income tax; social security contributions and other labour taxes paid by the employer; property taxes; turnover taxes and other small taxes (such as municipal fees and vehicle and fuel taxes).

Number of Public Prosecutors – EU, Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) >

“European Judicial Systems: Facts and Figures” was first published in December 2004 by the European Commission of the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ). It was the result of an experimental exercise for evaluating judicial systems designed to obtain comparable, objective quantitative and qualitative figures concerning the organisation and functioning of judicial systems. One of the sections of the report is devoted to public prosecutors. The numbers used in GIPI reflect the number of prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants in each country.

Number of Professional Judges – CEPEJ >

Another section of “European Judicial Systems: Facts and Figures” is dedicated to judges and court staff. Professional judges are described in the explanatory note of the evaluation of the scheme as “those who have been trained and who are paid as such (and where their main function is to work as a judge)”. The figures in GIPI reflect the number of such professional judges per 100, 000 inhabitants for each country.

Gross Annual Salary of Judges – CEPEJ >

Recommendation 94 (12) on the independence, efficiency and role of judges states that the remuneration of judges should be guaranteed by law and “commensurate with the dignity of their profession and burden of responsibilities. The Consultative Council of European Judges confirmed the fact that an adequate level of remuneration is necessary to guarantee that a judge can operate freely, without the pressure aimed at influencing their decision and or their behaviour (CCJE, Opinion (2001) No. 1:14). The figures used for GIPI reflect the average gross annual salaries for the judges in different countries quoted in euros.

Number of Courts – CEPEJ >

“European Judicial Systems: Facts and Figures” by CEPEJ has a section dedicated to the courts. The figures in GITI reflect the number of courts per 100, 000 inhabitants. Because of the different definitions of a court in the different countries the figures taken were the number of court locations per 100,000 inhabitants regardless of the number of judges or panels of judges that work in these locations.

Judiciary Independence - Economic Freedom of the World >

This index is derived from the questionnaire of the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. It is an answer to the question “Is the judiciary in your country independent from political influences of members of government, citizens or firms? No – heavily influenced (=1) or Yes – entirely independent (=7).

Impartial Courts - Economic Freedom of the World >

This index is derived from the questionnaire of the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. It is an answer to the question: “The legal framework in your country for private businesses to settle disputes and challenge the legality of government actions and/or regulations is inefficient and subject to manipulation (=1) or is efficient and follows a clear, neutral process (=7).

Protection of Property Rights - Economic Freedom of the World >

This index is derived from the questionnaire of the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum. It is an answer to the question: “Property rights, including over financial assets are poorly defined and not protected by law (=1) or are clearly defined and well protected by law (=7)”

Legal Enforcement of Contracts - Economic Freedom of the World >

This index is also a part of the Economic Freedom of the World survey but it is based on the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ estimates for the time and capital required to collect a debt (assumed to be 200% of the country’s per-capita income). Two ratings from 0 to 10 were structured and averaged to obtain the index – the time cost, measured in number of calendar days from the filing of the lawsuit to the day of payment and the capital cost, measured as percentage of the debt

Legal System & Property Rights - Economic Freedom of the World >

Legal System & Property Rights is one of the 5 fundamental sub-indices or sections used in the Economic Freedom of the World Index:

Size of government (Expenditure, Taxes and Enterprises)
Legal system and property rights
Access to sound money
Freedom to trade internationally
Regulation of credit, labour and business

Legal System and Property Rights is the weighted average of several indicators, some of which were used as separate instrumental factors for GIPI due to their importance for the overall index. The indicators are as follows: judiciary independence, impartial courts, protection of property rights, military interference in rule of law and the political process, integrity of the legal system, legal enforcement of contracts and regulatory restrictions of the sale of real property.

Royalty & License Fee Payments - World Development Indicators

Royalty and license fees are given in current (Mar 2008) US dollars per $1 million gross domestic product. They are defined as payments and receipts for the authorized use and proprietary rights of intangible, non-produced and non-financial assets such as trademarks, copyrights, patents, franchises and industrial processes, and for the use of produced originals of prototypes such as manuscripts and films.

International Property Rights Index - AC Horst & SA LaGanga >

The International Property Rights Index (IPRI) is a measure of both physical and intellectual property rights. The latest (2008) survey is carried out across 115 countries that account for 96% of world GDP and is separated into three key areas: Legal and Political Environment, Physical Property Rights and Intellectual Property Rights.

Litigation Cost - WIPO

The statistics for this index were obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organisation; they represent the average monetary cost of litigation measured in US dollars for lower court and appeal court (1st and 2nd level if applicable).

Litigation Length – WIPO

The statistics for this index were obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organisation; they represent the average time cost for lower court and appeal measured in years.

Innovation Index - Economist Intelligent Unit >

The Innovation Index was developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2007. It is designed as a measure of the adoption of new technology for various countries and the interaction between the business and scientific sector. Among the measures used for the composition of this index are the number of patents granted and higher education enrollment rates.

R & D Expenditure - World Development Indicators

Research and Development expenditure is measured as a percentage of a country’s GDP and is considered an important indicator to the country’s approach to the issue; (defined by the OECD as “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications”). R&D covers basic research, applied research and experimental development and reflects both public and private expenditure.

Trade Mark Applications by Population – WIPO

This instrumental factor reflects the number of applications filed for a registration of a trade mark with a national or a regional office measured per million people of population. Trade mark is defined as a distinctive sign that identifies goods or services as those produced by a specific person or enterprise; it provides exclusive right for its owner to use it to identify goods or services or to authorize its use by other people and/or enterprises.

Trade Mark Applications by Origin – WIPO >

The international trade mark system administered by WIPO offers a trade mark owner the possibility of having a mark protected in up to 84 countries by filing one application, in one language (English, French or Spanish), with one set of fees, in one currency (Swiss Francs). Applicants wishing to use the Madrid system must apply for trade mark protection in a relevant national or regional trade mark office before seeking international protection. The data for this instrumental factor represents the number of applications filed in such offices by the country of origin.

Madrid System of International Registration of Marks – WIPO >

An international registration under the Madrid system produces the same effects as an application for registration of the mark in each of the contracting parties (countries) designated by the applicant. If protection is not refused by the trade mark office of a designated contracting party, the status of the mark is the same as if it had been registered by that office. In other words, the system provides a cost-effective and efficient way for trade mark holders to secure protection for their marks in multiple countries through the filing of a single application. Applicants must state in which countries (that are members of the Madrid system) they wish to protect their trade mark but countries can be added afterwards in accordance to changes in business needs. This instrumental factor shows the number of countries that were designated in registrations originally and subsequently.

General Trade Related Index of Counterfeiting – OECD

The General Trade Related Index of Counterfeiting was developed for the purposes of “The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy”, a study published by the OECD in 2008. The index is based on data obtained by its customs officials for all reporting economies, i.e. the countries that participated in the study. This index is a proxy for the relative propensity of importing infringing goods from different “source” economies (145 are considered in total). This is done by dividing the seizure percentages of source economies by their respective import share of the reporting economy’s total imports.

Aggregated Trade Related Index of Counterfeiting - OECD

The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy develops the Aggregated Trade-Related Index of Counterfeiting (ATRIC). It aims to obtain a unique number for every economy known as being a source of counterfeit and pirated products that reflects the intensity, scope and durability of counterfeiting activities. The main purpose this index will be used for is to assess the potential effects of counterfeiting and piracy but while GTRIC covers a large number of reporting economies, ATRIC covers only four because of the need of detailed data. However the accuracy of the measurement is significantly improved.

Patent Filings by Population – WIPO >

The data for this instrumental factor is obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organisation and reflects the number of national and regional patent applications per million citizens for each country.

Patents Granted – WIPO >

The data for this instrumental factor is obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organisation and reflects the number of granted applications (from residents and non-residents) for each country.

Patents in Force – WIPO >

The data for this instrumental factor is obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organisation and reflects the number of patents in force for each country.

Estimated Trade Losses due to Copyright Piracy – International Intellectual
Property Alliance +

The estimated trade losses due to copyright piracy are compiled by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a coalition of seven trade associations representing US copyright based industries. The figures represent the total losses from records and software, business software, motion pictures, entertainment software and books.

Watch List Status Recommendation – International Intellectual Property Alliance +

The International Intellectual Property Alliance makes recommendations for countries to be placed in several watch lists according to how serious a problem copyright piracy is for them: the countries that are most affected by copyright piracy are listed in the Priority Watch List, the countries less affected on the Watch List, etc. This instrumental factor reflects IIPA’s recommendation whether a country should be moved from a higher to a lower priority watch list or vice versa.

Global Country Coded Top Level Domains – Nominet +

This is a ranking of the number of registrations of country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD’s), which are generally used or reserved for a given country or a dependent territory. They are administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and have two letter long identifier names such as: .uk .de .cn etc. The survey by Nominet has identified a positive correlation between growth in ccTLD domain names and GDP growth.

Global .com Domain Market Penetration +

This measure was added as complementary to the ccTLD registration ranking. It measures the market penetration of the generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) that is most common - .com. The data is obtained from Nominet – the organisation responsible for the management of the .uk registry.

Industrial Design Registrations – WIPO +

The World Intellectual Property Organisation provides annual statistics obtained from Intellectual Property offices around the world. This instrumental factor represents the registrations made by the IP office in each of the countries surveyed. The figures are a sum of both direct registrations at IP offices and ones via the WIPO administered Hague System for International Registration of Industrial Designs. The numbers provided by the WIPO are based on information from IP offices annually.

Industrial Design Applications – WIPO +

This instrumental factor represents the applications received by the IP office in each of the countries surveyed. The figures are a sum of both direct applications at IP offices and ones via the WIPO administered Hague System for International Registration of Industrial Designs. The numbers provided by the WIPO are based on information from IP offices annually.

Number of Complainants in Domain Name Disputes – WIPO +

This statistic is provided by the World Intellectual Property Organisation and measures the number of complainants in domain name disputes in every country surveyed. The index could be interpreted as an indicator to both the adaptability of a country’s legal framework to a relatively new area for intellectual property and its citizens’ trust in the judicial system.

Number of Respondents in Domain Name Disputes – WIPO +

This statistic is provided by the World Intellectual Property Organisation and considers the number of respondents in domain name disputes.

Number of Procedures – The European Commission +

This instrumental factor comes from the annual European Commission survey: “Report on Community Customs Activities on Counterfeit and Piracy”. It reflects the number of procedures undertaken by the customs authorities in the countries surveyed; these procedures target goods not only at points of entry and exit (import/export procedures) but also include anti smuggling procedures and ones aimed at intercepting counterfeit goods while in transit or warehoused in the relevant country.

Number of Intercepted Articles – The European Commission +

This factor also comes from the Report on Community Customs Activities on Counterfeit and Piracy and reflects the overall number of intercepted counterfeit goods

Back to top

© 2009 | Taylor Wessing LLP
Terms of use | Privacy policy | Regulatory | Environmental