Indian has been ranked top globally for enforcing intellectual property laws, ahead of some of the most advanced nations, like the United States and the United Kingdom, a survey says.
According to a survey conducted by London-based Consumers International, South Korea, China, the US and Indonesia follow India in the "best rated countries" category of its IP Watch List 2009.
"The list of countries that best support the interests of consumers is dominated by large Asian economies; but they are in odd company with the United States, which has regularly criticised those same countries for failing to adequately protect and enforce intellectual property rights," it said.
"This reflects the fact that US policy makers apply double standards when comparing their own copyright system to systems from abroad," it further said.
India has been awarded an overall rating of "A", reflecting how well the country observes consumers' interests in its national copyright law and enforcement practices.
Significantly, the UK, the country where copyright law first developed in the 16th century, has been put among the worst-rated nations. Other countries in this category include Thailand, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
The IP Watch List covers 16 countries from around the world. The survey examines the intellectual property (IP) laws and enforcement practices of a large number of countries.
"The intent of this IP Watch List is to assess how well the copyright laws and enforcement policies of the surveyed countries support the interests of consumers, by allowing them fair access to the fruits of their society's culture and science," Consumer International, which claims to be the world's only global consumer advocacy body, said.
As for the low ranking of the UK in the list, the survey said the country is joined by "a number of developing and transitional economies, whose outdated copyright laws fail to take advantage of all of the flexibilities that international law allows them to benefit local consumers".
This is the first-ever IP watch list by Consumer International and is solely focussed to copyright-related issues.
