Ratings in intellectual property – what they are for

The Rating of the richest people in the world according to Forbes, the Rating of the largest companies of Russia, the Rating of the world cities according to the quality of life – people enjoy reading and watching ratings in various fields. The reason for this is a human desire for perfection being inherent by nature. Achieving new heights, improving the quality of the skills obtained, the desire to do better than others – the love for competition is inseparably connected with the essence of the human nature.

Ratings in intellectual property

According to the Dictionary of Modern Economics, a rating is defined as: “...a complex of subject matters or phenomena ordered according to a numerical or ordinal indicator that reflects the importance, significance, prevalence, popularity and other similar qualities of this subject matter or phenomenon, as well as a methodology for this ordering.”[1] Thus, the ratings are the lists, in which the subject matters classified by some feature or indicator are indicated.

The ratings in the field of intellectual property can be divided into two categories:

• The ratings, where the subject matters of intellectual property act as the subject matters being studied and analyzed.
• The ratings that include the law firms or the private lawyers advising on intellectual property matters.

The ratings classifying the subject matters of intellectual property

The variety under consideration is most often made based on the statistical information. Such data are obtained as a result of the collection of the data on the citizens' applications filed with the offices for the registration of the subject matters of intellectual property, filing the statements of claim with the courts to defend the rights or the appeals to other authorized institutions. This includes the use of the publicly available information from the social surveys and the information provided by the public authorities as a result of the suppressed offenses (for example, the reports of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation).

One of such ratings made in 2017 is the Rating of the regions on the use of the subject matters of intellectual property. The data on the number of the subject matters of intellectual property of all categories used in the regions per 1 thousand people of the region population are taken as the basis of ranking. Based on those indicators, in 2016, the first place was taken by the city of Moscow, and the second one – by the Republic of Tatarstan.[2]

The results of the Annual ranking of the most expensive brands in the world made by Forbes magazine are appear to be interesting. As it is known, the brand is not a subject matter of intellectual property, however, it includes the means of individualization, and the use of the subject matters of intellectual property at the enterprise influence on the value of the brand under which the company acts in the market. According to the said rating, in 2018, the first place belonged to Apple, whose brand was evaluated at more than 205 billion US dollars.[3] The list made by the Forbes experts allows noting interesting peculiarities: firstly, according to the experts, Apple became a leader over the past nine years; secondly, the dominant positions are hold firmly by the company in the field of the development of digital technologies and the release of electronic devices. Thus, it is possible to determine the priority directions for the creation and development of the subject matters of intellectual property, as the rating reflects indirectly the consumer interest in the products being sold.

The ratings that include the law firms and the lawyers, who are engaged in the field of intellectual property

Such classifiers are made on the basis of the various factors reflecting the activity of the representatives of the law firms or the private professionals in a particular field of the protection or defence of intellectual property. The data about the number of the legal disputes, in which the company or the lawyer has participated is taken into account as a basis, as well as their ratio to the number of the cases won. Or, for example, the volume of the registered subject matters of intellectual property during the period under consideration.

The most well-known ratings are the following ones of the law firms in the field of intellectual property:

• WTR 1000. The Annual rating made on the basis of studying the Russian market of the legal services. It is published by World Trademark Review magazine and it  contains a list of the firms that are the leaders in the segment of the registration and the legal defence of trademarks. In 2018, Zuykov and Partners entered the rating according to two categories: “The Law Enforcement and the Legal Proceedings” and “Administering the Trademarks Registration and the Strategy.” Sergey Zuykov and Alexandra Pelikh, whose achievements as the professionals of the law enforcement practice and the legal proceedings allowed them getting into the rating of the individual professionals in the field of intellectual property, were also mentioned.
• IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Professionals. The Rating of the key lawyers in the field of patent law. According to the results of the annual studying that is carried out by the analytical team of IAM magazine, Zuykov and Partners has  entered the list of the successful Russian firms engaged in patent paperwork. The head of Zuykov and Partners, patent attorney Sergey Zuykov, has been included in the rating of the patent professionals.
• The Annual National Rating Pravo.ru-300. It is made taking into account customer feedback and it includes 26 nominations. Zuykov and Partners gets in the Russian rating during several years and it strengthens its position every year. In 2018, the company entered the 2nd group among the law firms engaged in the field of intellectual property. In terms of the revenue per employee, the firm took the 7th place among the organizations having less than 30 lawyers. Zuykov and Partners is also indicated for the first time in the rating by the total revenue.

What the ratings of intellectual property are for

If to consider the first category of the ratings – their need is due to the possibility to determine a direction of the further development of the sectors of intellectual property. In addition to this, such classifiers are used to identify the popular and progressive fields of intellectual property, in order to forecast and correct the scientific activity at the enterprise. The ratings allow an individual inventor finding the priority directions to express his creative potential.

As to the ratings of the law firms, their creation is important both for the very companies and for the clients. The management of the organization, thanks to the ratings, is able to assess their employees’ efficiency and performance. Studying the ratings gives the customers a number of advantages: firstly, the indication of the company in the well-known rating guarantees its bona fides; secondly, the probability of winning in the legal disputes is great, because the legal practice serves as a basis for the creation of some ratings; thirdly, the potential customer can be sure of the skills of the lawyers working in the company.