WIPO releases 2018 Global Innovation Index

• English

The Global Innovation Index reflects innovation activity in more than 120 economies around the world. It is a helpful guide to decision makers in the process of patent application and investment.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), together with the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) and Cornell University published the 2018 Global Innovation Index also known as GII (Cornell University, INSEAD, and WIPO (2018): The Global Innovation Index 2018: Energizing the World with Innovation. Ithaca, Fontainebleau, and Geneva). This is the 11^th edition of the index which is to serve as a tool to assist decision makers with understanding innovative activity that propels economic and human development. The study ranks 126 economies, and the results are based on 80 indicators which include Intellectual Property filing rates, mobile application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.

As in 2017, Switzerland is again top of the list as the most innovative economy and other countries to make the GII 2018 top ten include Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Singapore, United States of America, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Ireland. China entered the world’s top twenty most innovative economies by moving from a 22^nd position to number 17. Australia also joined the top 20 by moving from number 23 to number 20. The United States dropped two places from number four to number six.

An expanded look was taken at economies that are regarded to innovate efficiently, translating investments in education, research and R&D expenditure into high quality innovation results. The leaders are Switzerland, Luxembourg, China, Netherlands, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Malta, Hungary Germany and Sweden.

A new indicator has been added, namely in mobile application creation and the leaders were Cyprus, Finland and Lithuania with the most mobile applications relative to GDP. Companies striving for digitalization, for example, new business models based more on data than on hardware, are invited to have a closer look at the recent IP landscape developments in these countries.

Another feature is the “ICP Green Inventory” which reflects a declining growth rate in environmentally friendly energy related patenting with green patent publishing rates peaking in 2012. “Energizing the World with Innovation” was the theme for the 2018 GII edition. The study particularly considered “the need for expanded innovative work in climate friendly green technology amid rising energy demands worldwide”.

The GII findings indicate that technological advancements need to be made across the whole energy value chain and that public policy will pay an important role in securing cleaner energy. An analysis performed by Dennemeyer consultants focused on how changes in the energy utilities business environment lead to challenges for companies’ Intellectual Property management. It was shown that energy companies have to focus on IP intelligence to support innovation and strategic decisions as they will be more involved in “fights with gloves off” due to market consolidation and intensified competition.

Dennemeyer is active in many of the countries that are covered by the survey. Our clients hail from many different industries, including the energy utilities business environment.  Dennemeyer is enabling companies to bridge innovation gaps, for example by applying sophisticated IP insights to nourish innovating thinking and creativity.

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