Intellectual Property and Development

Recently, intellectual property rights have become a major issue in international law. As technology increases and the movement of information is facilitated, businesses will need to protect their innovations. Some argue that this protection must be guaranteed by governments in order to encourage creativity and foster growth.

The 2008 Intellectual Property Rights Index was recently released, and VOANews.com wrote an article yesterday, analyzing the results. According to the survey of 115 countries, there is a correlation between property rights and development. This supports the argument of Hernando de Soto, which we discussed on Tuesday, that developing countries must protect property rights — both tangible and intangible — in order to grow economically. Finland, Norway and Denmark are the three highest ranked countries. The U.S. is nineteenth. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the two lowest.

India is tied with South Korea for 36th and China is tied for 62nd. India, who’s economic growth is largely a product of technological innovation, has relatively effective intellectually property laws compared to other developing nations. Its score has increased by almost an entire point since last year (countries are rated on a scale of 1-10). China, however, trails a number of Latin American, Eastern European, and other Asian countries, and its score has dropped since 2007. According to the arguments of de Soto and the Intellectual Property Rights Index Committee, these two emerging economies will have to continue to strengthen their property rights if they hope to sustain growth. With this argument in mind, is India more poised to sustain economic growth than its Asian neighbor? Or, will China disprove de Soto’s theory?

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-26-voa21.cfm

http://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/

http://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/UserFiles/File/Results.pdf