The World Intellectual Property Organization recently released the 14th edition of their Global Innovation Index. For those of you who do not know about the WIPO, it is one of the 15 agencies of the United Nations. The key role of the WIPO is to promote innovation all around the world and to protect the rights of inventors. The WIPO has been releasing its Global Innovation Index, also known as GII, since the year 2007. This year is the 14th edition of the GII, and we will understand the key takeaways from the report for the IP industry. 

The Indicators for The Global Innovation Index

The World Intellectual Property Organization ranks a country in the Global Innovation Report based on 81 indicators. The new thing about the 2021 edition is that the GII has also added the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on innovation. 

The United States Remain In The Top 5

The good news is that the United States has still maintained its position in the top 5 of the Global Innovation Index. The current ranking of the United States is at number 3 out of the 132 countries included in the list. It suggests the dominance of the US in the IP industry, and they have kept up the pace in terms of innovation. Based on the trends that we see, the United States is not going to be out of the list in the near future. But to keep up with the growing pace around the world, Americans surely need to increase their pace if they want to dominate the world of innovation in the future. You can attend the IIPLA 2021 Hybrid Intellectual Property Conference to understand the emerging trends in the IP industry. The conference is scheduled for the 4th and 5th of November, 2021, in Las Vegas, USA. Check out for more details by clicking here. 

The Other Top 5 Nations

The dominance of the West is still there in the Global Innovation Index. Switzerland gets the first position in the GII 2021, followed by another European nation Sweden. The good news for Europe does not stop there, though, as the United Kingdom has also retained its position in the top 5. The United Kingdom ranks at the fourth position right after the United States. The new thing this year is that the good news extends to Asia, and the Republic of Korea has also secured a position in the top 5 by getting the 5th rank in the GII 2021. 

The Top 10 List

Now that we already know about the top 5 countries let’s extend our list to the top 10 countries to understand who has secured a spot there. Europe makes a comeback again in the list, and four out of the five entrants in the top 10 are from Europe only. And by the way, the fifth one is again from Asia. So, the Netherlands takes the sixth position here, followed by Finland at the seventh position. Coming back from Asia, Singapore takes the next spot, joined by Denmark and Germany at the ninth and tenth positions, respectively. 

The Top 20 List

When we move to the top 20 lists, the missing European nation in the previous list, France, joins at the eleventh position. This time the Asian nation China takes over Japan, one of the other leading nations from Asia in terms of innovation. This year, China has moved two spots up in the Index as it got at the 14th rank in the GII 2020. Five more European Nations join the top 20 list. North America comes back once again after the top 5 list as Canada joins the top 20 at the 16th position. The other four nations in the top 20 are from Asia again, namely China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Israel. 

Position of Other Major Countries

You may be missing many major economies around the globe in this list. Let’s find some of them to see where they stand. The Russian Federation gets 45th rank in the index, which is one spot improvement over the last year. Following the Russian Federation, India ranks at the 46th position, improving two spots over last year. Australia gets at 25th position followed by New Zealand at 26th.