Godfred Yeboah Dame and his host
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has held fruitful discussions with the Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Daren Tang, on the sidelines of the WIPO’s General Assembly, which is currently taking place in Geneva.
The Attorney-General, whose ministry is responsible for matters concerning intellectual property rights in Ghana, on July 7, 2023, officially led a government delegation to the 64th edition of the WIPO’s General Assembly held at WIPO headquarters.
The delegation consists of the Registrar-General of Ghana, Grace Issahaque, senior officials of the Ministry of Justice, and Ghana’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Emmanuel Kwame Antwi.
Mr. Dame expressed his delegation’s appreciation for the WIPO’s warm hospitality and pledged that Ghana will continue to expand its special connection with the Director-General in particular, and WIPO in general.
He also added that the Ghanaian government, led by President Akufo-Addo, acknowledges the value of innovation, creativity, and industrialisation as critical to national growth.
According to Mr. Dame, the recent location of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Accra, which has a dedicated Intellectual Property Division, has highlighted the need to foster an enabling environment for creativity and innovation to thrive at the national and continental levels.
Mr. Dame honoured an invitation for a meeting with the head of the global institution responsible for administering intellectual property in order to discuss pertinent issues relating to Ghana’s development in intellectual property.
The meeting also discussed Ghana’s current status as the Coordinator of the African Group of Member States of WIPO from 2023 to 2024, a position Ghana is holding for the first time in over 20 years.
Ghana is also the Vice-President of the Lisbon Union on Geographical Indications and President of the Paris Union Assembly of WIPO.
Daren Tang, Director-General of WIPO, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Attorney-General for honouring the invitation, as well as Mr. Dame’s ministerial support for WIPO’s activities.
Mr. Tang stated that Ghana had recently demonstrated excellent leadership on the African continent in terms of intellectual property.
He believes that Ghana’s position as Coordinator of the African Group at WIPO will only result in significant improvement for Africa’s intellectual property law if it is supported by the appropriate ministerial leadership, which Ghana is exhibiting.
The Director-General of WIPO noted that Ghana’s registration of the “Bolga basket” as a geographical indication, as well as the deposit of the instrument of ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (the UPOV Convention) by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice in November 2021, are very significant steps by Ghana in intellectual property protection, and expressed his willingness to assist the country in making substantial advances in intellectual property.