Intellectual Property & Technology Commercialization Ghana’S Experience
Paper presented at the international Congress of Technological Research Organisations, Porto Alegre, Brazil, September 2002
15 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2009
Date Written: June 11, 2009
Abstract
By an Act of Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, CSIR Act 521 of 1996, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, Ghana’s main R&D Organisation was re-established with a new mandate to conduct market-oriented, demand-driven research and also to commercialise the research results & technologies developed. The CSIR was tasked to recover three-quarters of its annual operating expenses through contract research and services. Over five years of implementation, what are the experiences? This paper looks at the implementation process, the attitude of research scientists towards the change and the impact of the commercialisation process on the socio-economic development of Ghana. The constraints of commercialisation including inadequate uptake of research which is a reflection of inappropriate monitoring and evaluation is discussed. The intellectual property rights protection from the perspective of a developing country is also discussed. The administration and enforcement of intellectual property rights in developing countries must be seen in another dimension to the administration of intellectual property rights and their enforcement in developed countries. The third world also should not see the observance and enforcement of intellectual property rights as merely protecting the interests of the developed world, but rather as a powerful tool to galvanise the domestic industry while retaining national culture, national inventiveness and national creativity. A world of high velocity change calls for radical shifts in behaviour. Specifically scientist must think differently, re-order our priorities, develop faster reflexes and give the culture an entirely new set of responses. Scientists in Ghana cannot afford to ignore change and just do what comes naturally. We must face reality and do what works. Research managers need special orientation on new techniques of business management under conditions of global change.
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