China
For China, signing up to TRIPS in 2001 was one of the most important reforms toward IP-based economic development as patent applications, GDP and expenditure on R&D have since greatly increased. This suggests that TRIPS has had an effect on China’s domestic economy.
Some major companies such as Huawei and China First Automobile Works Group Corporation have increased their number of patent applications since 2001 when China joined TRIPS. Their revenue has increased, but their profits have sometimes decreased.
As for the economic analysis in China, patent grants were seen to be positively related to the IP index as well as to GDP. Moreover, GDP has been seen to be positively related to the IP index as well as to national investment in fixed assets.
India
In India, signing up to TRIPS in 1995 has been one of the most important reforms toward IP-based economic development. In order to comply with TRIPS, Indian patent law was revised three times, in 1999, 2002 and 2005. Since these revisions in patent law, the number of patent applications, R&D or GDP has increased.
These data suggest that TRIPS played an important role in technological development and economic growth. Moreover, the number of patent applications has greatly increased since 2003, and the number of Indian domestic patent applications moved ahead of those from foreign countries for the first time in 2004-2005. This suggests that TRIPS is also effective in domestic IP creation.
As for the case studies on companies, the trend in patent applications was similar to that for R&D expenditures. In the pharmaceutical and IT fields, some major companies have been active in these areas:
however, this was not the case for many companies.
[Impact of the Intellectual Property System on Economic Growth ]
24 As for the economic analysis, patents obtained and applied for were positively related to the IP index as well as to R&D and GDP. Other economic analyses such as GDP and FDA did not show a positive relationship to the IP index.
Japan
In the survey on reforms toward IP-based economic development, we focused on three measures: i) the introduction of the Patent System for Substances in 1975, ii) the introduction of the Technology Transfer Promotion Act in 1998 and iii) the enactment of the Basic Law on Intellectual Property in 2002. According to the data before and after the introduction of these measures, the number of patents granted or applied for, R&D expenditures, technology trades or licensing contracts greatly increased. This showed a possible relationship between the IP system and economic growth. It also suggests that the system has been one of the factors for high economic growth since the 1970s.
In the case studies, we focused on four industries related to pharmaceuticals, information technology, manufacturing and automobiles. In the former, royalties of five major companies have increased since around 1999, which seems to have been the result of recent IP policy. Takeda is representative of the pharmaceutical field, and its IP strategy has been to put a higher priority on the utilization of intellectual property than on applying for it. In the IT and manufacturing industries, the royalties of five major companies have remained high or have increased since around 1999. Sony and Canon are representative of these fields and they have their own IP strategies such as a patent pool and cross-licensing. In the automobile industry, R&D expenditure has increased since around 1999, which suggested that new technologies were being aggressively created.
Toyota is representative of the automobile industry, and a patent portfolio is part of its IP Strategy.
In the economic analysis, a statistically significant increase was observed in the number of patent and trademark filings in the prefectures that formulated IP-strategic programs.
Korea
In Korea, signing up to TRIPS in 1995 was one of the most important reforms toward IP-based economic development. Since then the number of patent applications has greatly increased. Moreover, since then, the numbers of domestic patent applications have increased more sharply than those from foreign
companies. These data suggest that TRIPS has had an effect on IP creation, especially domestic IP creation:
FDI has also increased greatly since 1995, suggesting that TRIPS has also had an effect on this,
As for the case studies, the number of patent applications and level of expenditure on R&D by Samsung and Hyundai have been increasing recently, which suggests a close relationship between patent
applications and R&D. These data suggest that intellectual property and R&D must be two of the major factors in their current success.
As for the economic analysis, the results were quite different from those expected. There was no positive result, one of the reasons being that the benefits of TRIPS have not appeared.
[Impact of the Intellectual Property System on Economic Growth ]
Malaysia 25
In Malaysia, the effect of joining the Paris Convention in 1990 and TRIPS in 1995 led to very important reforms for IP-based economic development. Since joining the former, the number of patent applications and the rate of GDP have greatly increased. Since joining TRIPS the number of patent applications and level of expenditure on R&D have also greatly increased. The revision of the patent law in 2000 to comply with TRIPS was also a very important reform for IP-based economic development because royalties dramatically increased between 2002 and 2005. These data suggested a close relationship between IP-related treaties and economic growth. The country joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2006, and this is also expected to have an influence on its economic growth.
In the case studies, even major companies in major industries had not obtained many patents, and this is borne out by the cases of Favelle Favco Berhad and Cooper Cameron Sdn Berhad in the manufacturing industry.
In the economic analysis, patent applications positively correlate to the IP index. Moreover, GDP and FDI showed a positive relation to the IP index.
Vietnam
The introduction of the Civil Code including IP-related provisions in 1995 has been one of the most important reforms toward IP-based economic development in Vietnam. The number of patent applications as well as GDP and FDI has increased significantly since 1995. This suggests a close relationship between the IP system and economic growth. Moreover, after the introduction of the Intellectual Property Law in 2006 and signing up to TRIPS in 2006, the number of patent applications greatly increased. This suggests that the introduction of this new law and joining TRIPS have had positive effects on IP creation.
In the case studies, applicants in the automobile industry tended to aggressively apply for IP, although this is different in other industries.
In the economic analysis, patent grants were positively related to the IP index as well as GDP. Moreover, GDP was positively related to the IP index as well as to national investment in fixed assets. The relationship between the IP system and economic growth is quantitatively shown from these data and further research is expected to be conducted for other economic data such as FDI in order to demonstrate the economic impact more clearly.
[Impact of the Intellectual Property System on Economic Growth ]
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