A national colloquium on "Building Respect for Intellectual Property (IP) Rights," opened on Friday for the Judiciary to exchange ideas and share experiences among members of the Bench on matters relating to IP rights and enforcement.
The outcome of the two-day programme, which is being organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in collaboration with the Government of Ghana and the Judicial Training Institute (JTI), is expected to promote the development and enhancement of mechanisms in IP rights in Ghana.
Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, Deputy Attorney-General and Deputy Minister of Justice in an address noted that innovation was central to economic growth and to the creation of new and better jobs. Therefore, government intended to make the private sector more dynamic, innovative, creative and vibrant in order to compete effectively on the global market.
This achievement, he said, would necessarily entail encouraging people to be innovative, creative and inventive so as to provide and develop solutions to the numerous socio-economic challenges and enhance wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
Mr Barton-Odro underscored the important roles of innovators, creators, artistes and intellectuals in the development and growth of societies worldwide, but stressed that such innovations and their benefits did not come without the investment of time, effort, human and financial resources.
"Intellectual Property provides the incentive for that investment," he said.
He indicated that the protection of tangible assets through the IP system helped to prevent competitors from copying or closely imitating a company's product or service, prevented wasteful investments in research,
development and marketing, helped in creating a corporate identity through trademarks and branding and helped companies obtain easy access to new markets.
He said government had put in place strong protective systems for the promotion of economic growth, one of which was the IP system which was
currently being reviewed under the Ghana government and Swiss IP Project, to ensure that the citizenry derived maximum benefits from their innovations and creative works.
He stated that in the era of increasingly knowledge-driven economies, IP was a key consideration in day-to-day business decisions as new products, brands and creative designs appeared almost daily on the market and taking
full advantage of the IP systems in place enabled companies and individuals to profit from their innovative capacities and creativity and encourage
others to emulate.
Mr Barton-Odro acknowledged the immense contributions made by WIPO in strengthening the IP infrastructure in Ghana saying it was important that Ghana as a developing country, examined the use of Intellectual Property
tools to advance her developmental strategies.
He said government and the Ministry of Justice would remain an ardent supporter and promoter of the IP system for the benefit of all.
Justice Sulley Gbadegbe, on behalf of the Chief Justice, said the enforcement of IP rights had become necessary because of the continuing
violation of the rights of creators and inventors, saying the said judiciary appreciates the cooperation that existed between the Register-General's Department, the institution mandated to protect industrial property rights, the WIPO and the JTI.
He said the reasons that underlay such disrespect of IP rights were many and varied and ranged from greed, lack of awareness, ruthless criminal intent, and innocent mistakes.
He said the issue of balance which lay at the heart of all intellectual rights, whether in the area of cultural creations or technological
inventions on one hand, and the incentive to create on the other hand, led to the diffusion of social benefits of the innovation which was an extremely a complex matter.
Justice Gbadegbe said, "There is a vast area of practical cooperation, which is very important in the achievement of the balance between creation on one hand and diffusion on the other."
He said increasing reports of violations of IP in the country had brought to the fore the huge task that confronted the enforcement agencies, particularly the judiciary.
He expressed the hope that participants would be able to develop some specific recommendations and also identify some specific needs to assist the Institute among others, in supporting the development of human resource of
the Judiciary.
He said the ability of the Judiciary to effectively play its role was dependent on the acquisition of better knowledge tools the JTI to assist it in its work and appealed to WIPO to continue with its capacity building initiatives and training programmes to equip the judiciary to tackle the escalating problem of counterfeiting and piracy in the country.