The United States, often seen as toughest on other nations for their perceived failure to protect US intellectual property rights, was itself 19th in the world in such protection last year, according to the latest World Economic Forum survey on competitiveness. Some of those scoring higher have been criticised in the past year by the US for lax IP protection. Overall, the US was replaced by Switzerland as the most competitive country.

The US Chamber of Commerce industry group in a blog post said the low ranking is evidence of the need for stronger protection measures by the United States in the international context (rather than within its borders), saying the survey captures the perception of others of the US “stance” on IP protection.