Canada #9 Beats Out Germnay, UK, Japan & USA (#18) in 2011 IPRI Property Rights Ranking

The well known and highly influential US conservative think tank -  Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform  - has a "project" called the "Property Rights Alliance". According to Declan McCullagh at CNET:

The Property Rights Alliance, a project of ATR, lists combating "piracy and counterfeiting of intellectual property" in its mission statement. Its annual property rights index scores nations on variables including how "effective" each is in eliminating "copyright piracy."

The 2011 Report of the Property Rights Alliance - the International Property Rights Index ("IPRI") - ranks Canada at #9 overall re protection of physical and intellectual property. Canada is ahead of the UK, Germany, Japan and the the USA (#18) amongst others. Here's the top 20:

SWEDEN 1
FINLAND 1
SINGAPORE 3
SWITZERLAND 4
NORWAY 4
NEW ZEALAND 4
LUXEMBOURG 4
DENMARK 8
NETHERLANDS 9
CANADA 9
AUSTRALIA 9
AUSTRIA 12
HONG KONG 13
GERMANY 13
UNITED KINGDOM 15
JAPAN 16
IRELAND 16
UNITED STATES 18
BELGIUM 18
FRANCE 20

As for Canada, the report says:

Canada’s IPRI remained the same after two
previous years of slight increases. There is little
to complain about however, as Canada remains
the highest ranked country in both its
region and the western hemisphere. (emphasis added)

This is very good news and Canada should be proud. There's also an interesting case study by Joseph Quesnel entitled "Creating Indigenous Property Rights: The Nisga’a Landholding Transition Act".

The full IPRI report is available  here.

HK