In Ghana the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched an Intellectual Property Policy. The document, which was drafted with the assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), is intended to benefit both innovators and the CSIR.

A CSIR spokesman said this at the launch: ‘If a company protects its products or processes with intellectual property rights, it can derive revenues not only from direct marketing but also from licensing the intellectual property rights to third parties…Dissemination of technical information is another important aspect of intellectual property rights. This is where our interest is centred on.’