Intellectual property, valued asset for business

Accra, Sept. 9, GNA - An intellectual property analyst on Friday, said when intellectual property is protected, it becomes the most valuable asset to businesses as it protects creative ideas. Mrs Helen Lom, Advisor and Brand Development Analyst of the World Intellectual Organisation, said the protection of creative ideas and innovations did not only serve as a defensive tool against competitors but also prevailed as a proactive marketing device to differentiate products to attract consumers.

Speaking at a lecture as part of the Pan-African Women Invention Conference and Exhibition on the theme, "The Intellectual Property Right" in Accra, she said if brilliant ideas, creative works and innovations were not adequately safeguarded, they became worthless. "If intellectual property is protected, it can be used to develop new brands, assigned to others and serve as a license that can be sold to interested business for royalties."


Mrs Lom explained that protection of intellectual property gave exclusive right to inventors to acquire access to specified legal remedies and excluded or prevented others from commercially using the products.


She said inventors must ensure that they conducted thorough search before they secured the safety of their products so that they did not re-invent the wheel and forestall conflicts in the market. Mrs Bridget Kyeremanteng-Darko, Director, Aid Artisan, Ghana, urged Ghanaian businesses to be creative.


She said she was unhappy at the new market trends where industries in Asia and the Far East copied the creative designs of Ghanaian and Africans at large yet local companies were unable to learn the productive designs of those countries.

Mrs Kyeremanteng-Darko also called for measures that would contribute to offer protection to creative businesses located in remote communities so that big enterprises did not take advantage of their innovations.


The Pan-African Women Invention Conference and Exhibition, which is the first of its kind to be organized in Africa, seeks to inspire women to bring out their creative ideas from the bud to a full fledged business entity that would empower them to take their rightful position in society.


The three-day conference currently underway and sponsored by the International Finance Corporation has attracted enthusiastic women across Africa and the international community. 09 Sept 05