WIPO crowns Switzerland as world’s most innovative nation

The WIPO annual innovation report is one of many that features Switzerland highly Keystone

Switzerland retained its crown as the world’s most innovative country for the eighth year in a row, according to the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – the global intellectual property agency.

Switzerland came top of the innovation list ahead of the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain, Singapore, the United States, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Ireland. 

Rankings were not just determined by the number of trademarks filed, a category in which Switzerland has traditional strength. Innovation was measured by 80 factors in total, such as mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.

This year, the indicators included for the first time prowess at green technologies, an innovation that has gained in importance in global terms.

The WIPO ranking of 126 countries is just one of numerous global surveys that generally feature Switzerland in top spot or among the leaders at innovation.

This year’s WIPO survey was perhaps more noteworthy for the rapid elevation of China, which climbed into the top 20, at rank 17, for the first time. At the same time, the US, which has embarked on a round of trade disputes with other nations, slid two places to number six on the list.