Asian Countries Ranked For IPR Protection

by Mary Swire, LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

31 August 2010

A survey of almost 1,300 expatriate corporate managers by the Hong Kong-based research group, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, found that Singapore is considered to be the best country in Asia, and Indonesia the worst, at protecting intellectual property rights (IPR).

The survey was conducted during the last three months, and was largely concerned with the possible international piracy of films and computer software in twelve Asian economies. It focused on the legal IPR protection in each country and whether that protection was also enforceable in an effective manner.

The countries were rated up to 10 points, with the higher scores representing the least effective IPR protection. It was reported that Singapore came out best with a score of 1.5 points, followed by Japan and Hong Kong with scores under 3. Taiwan and South Korea were the only other countries with scores under 5.

Despite efforts to improve its performance in protecting IPR, China was given the third worst rating at 7.9 points, This, it was said, largely reflected the fact that businesses were still cautious about Chinese companies which, due to their size and the size of China’s economy, could cause the markets considerable problems.

As could be expected, the less developed countries in the region were among those with the worst ratings – for example, the Philippines at 6.8, Vietnam at 8.4 and Indonesia at 8.5. In those countries, even if IPR protection regulations exist, businesses remain skeptical of the authorities’ ability to enforce them, and counterfeiting still remains a significant problem.

Recommended