Ghana's International Property Rights To Undergo Review

Ghana's Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) regime is undergoing a review to conform to international best practices and make it more beneficial to the nation.

The legislation under review includes the Trademarks Act, the Industrial Designs Act and the Patents Act and seeks to protect innovations.

Experts in various disciplines have begun a two-day meeting in Accra to deliberate on the review of the country’s Patents Act and its respective regulations.

Addressing the experts, the Deputy Attorney-General and Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Ebo Barton Odro, said to be compliant with the fast-growing field of intellectual property, nations should consider the need to align their IPR legislation with various international conventions and best practices.

“As intellectual property rights are territorial, the revised acts will have to reflect the needs of the nation and this is the case with our review of the Patents Act,” he noted.

Mr Odro said the review would provide a better legislative environment, create an efficient patent protection system in Ghana and boost research work and incentive activities.

He said innovation and intellectual property played an important role in national development and so “we need to find a way of encouraging innovation not only in the sense of development of new products, but also in the sense of providing a framework for bringing new inventions from the early stage right through a very complex process to a marketed product”.

He said currently, discussions were ongoing to ascertain the most efficient structure to deliver services in intellectual property for the country.

The Legal Director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Kwame Fosu, urged the participants to make the revised Patents Act forward-looking.

“It is our fervent hope that the outcome of the deliberations will add on to the building of blocks of our intellectual property rights system in Ghana,” Mr Odro said.