Ghana, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Information Age

"Ghana is set to transform management of intellectual property rights"
Ghana News Agency (July 6, 2010)

"Ghana on Tuesday set out structural indicators for modernisation of the country's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime in conformity with international best practices

"These include the provision of transfer of technology among key stakeholders on operations of IPR, create avenue for innovation to enhance productivity and facilitate trade and industrial competitiveness.

"Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry (MOTI), disclosed this during the inauguration of National Intellectual Property Policy Committee (NIPPC) and Technical Coordination Group charged with the mandate to establish national IP policy development...."

There's more in the article - that's probably of more interest to folks living in Ghana than here in Minnesota. On the other hand, we're really not that far away.

Thanks to Information Age technology, including the Internet, I'd be able to communicate with someone in Ghana about as easily as I can with someone living in, say, Minneapolis or Chicago.

I took a quick look at the Ghana article in the CIA World Factbook. In common with many parts of Africa, Ghana has an impressive array of natural resources, from gold and industrial-grade diamonds to fish. That's a good start - and I'm glad to see that Ghana's leaders are getting up to speed with Information Age legal standards.

These days, the Gulf of Guinea isn't very far from the Gulf of Mexico or Bangkok - and I think it's a good idea for us all to get on the same page where it comes to how we handle 'intellectual property.'