The 182-page book titled “Monetizing your Creativity and Innovation: An Introduction to Intellectual Property” was launched in celebration of World Intellectual Property Day 2022 which was marked globally on April 26, 2022.

The book also covers the relevance of IP rights to innovation; how to generate IP; how individuals or businesses can protect their IP, monetize and commercialise it; as well as enforce their rights in the most practical way possible.

It was co-authored by: Mary Magdalene Onyinyechukwu Dotsey, Jerome Dela Lavie, Benedicta Mawena Dzandu and Blessing Korle while the cover was designed by Abihail Nortsoe Shang-Quartey and illustrated by Ralph Yendaw.

The first chapter explores how one can generate intellectual property and the importance of IP rights. Chapter two through to chapter four focuses on how one can protect, monetize, and enforce their IP rights.

The author

Inspiration

Launching the book today (April 26, 2022) in Accra, Ms Anku said the book is targeted at young creative minds and intended to help such creative minds navigate the world of IP to achieve maximum benefits from their creativity and innovation.

She added that it also provides information on how to monetize one's creativity and innovation using IP rights.

She further disclosed that she was inspired to write the book in response to the increasing number of unemployed youth who given the right information could capitalise on their creativity to improve their lives.

"According to the recent statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service, 12% of Ghanaian youth are unemployed and more than 50% underemployed. Meanwhile, from personal observation, most of these affected youth have creative and innovative ideas that can propel them to prosperity, given the right tools and opportunities," Ms Anku said.

"As a private law firm that specializes in Intellectual Property law and practice, ANKU.ANKU AT LAW and its subsidiary PATENTASSIST, seek to contribute to the promotion of Intellectual Property Rights by creating awareness and adding to knowledge in the field of IPRs.

"We seek to open up the subject in a more friendly and acceptable manner to all and to the youth in particular. To this extent, we are climaxing this year's World IP Day celebration with this book launch on the subject matter".

Importance of IP

In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie who wrote the book's foreword said it was more crucial than ever in today's knowledge-based economy for young problem solvers to understand the basics of IP rights and how to capitalise on it to generate sustainable income.

He added that it was vital that the book also examined emerging trends such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their relation to IP.

"Indeed, IP is all around us, and as a result, any person today who does not understand at least the basics of intellectual property and its crucial role in arts, science, business and the professions will undoubtedly be handicapped in our ever-changing and fast-growing world," he said.

On his part, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mark Okraku Mantey congratulated the author for contributing to the knowledge base of IP rights in Ghana and urged the youth and educational institutions to take advantage of the opportunities that it presents.

A former Attorney General of Ghana, Betty Mould-Iddrisu described the book as a brilliant idea that would simplify IP rights to all young people in Ghana and beyond.

She also urged the Ministry of Education to purchase the book for all schools in Ghana in order to ingrain the importance of IP rights in Ghanaian youth from a young age.