WIPO honours seven Ghanaians

The first category award winners were presented with a plague from the WIPO and $1,250, while the second group received a plague and $750, with third placed team receiving a plague and $500.

The award winners will pay a working visit to South Korea.

Mr Omar Katbi, the Head of Outreach Services Section, WIPO, said in all 29 entries were received for the awards.

He said the WIPO had organised similar competitions in The Philippines, Malaysia and Ethiopia in an effort to strengthen and support patent rights among inventors in those countries.

He said the objective of the competition was to encourage and reward excellence in innovative solutions to frequently recurring problems in society that utilised technologies appropriate to local conditions.

He noted that innovation and economic trends indicated that a nation’s ability to generate wealth and protect its cultural heritage depended on its support for inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs and in its knowledge of the Intellectual Property (IP) system.

Mr Katbi, who is also the Head of the Communications Division of the WIPO, said the organisation, one of the specialised agencies of the United Nations, was at the forefront of efforts to ensure that rights of innovators and inventors were recognised, rewarded and protected worldwide.

“The degree to which inventors and creators can harvest the value of their IP depends largely on the existence of a nurturing policy environment to help both the actual and potential users of IP develop, protect, use and manage it as an economic asset,” he said.

Mrs Grace Issahaque, a Principal State Attorney in Ghana, noted that the IP landscape in the country was set to change in some few years due to reforms currently going on in the sector.

“The passage of the revised IP Bill and regulations by Parliament and the approval of the National IP Policy and Strategy by the Cabinet would give a significant boost to the IP regime in Ghana,” she said.

She expressed her appreciation to the WIPO and the Korean IP Office for their initiative and called for a sustained relationship betweenGhana and those organisations.

Participants also used the occasion to discuss the need for the use of appropriate technologies in inventions and the protection of IP.

GNA