The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was established by National Liberation Council Decree 293 of October 10, 1968, and re-established in its present form by CSIR Act 521 of November 26, 1996, to promote, encourage, and regulate research and the application of science and technology in development.
The mission of the CSIR is to become the force for accelerated social and economic development for Ghana through examining, exploring, and creating science and technology catalysts for public and private wealth creation.
The CSIR is mandated to perform the following functions:
To realize its mandate, the CSIR has developed this Intellectual Property (IP) Policy to regulate and encourage creativity as well as to protect and disseminate the results of the CSIR's research activities in diverse fields of Intellectual Property for the benefit of the public. It is hoped that the creation and development of Intellectual Property at the CSIR would encourage new business ventures through licensing, technology transfer, and commercialization.
In this Policy, unless the context otherwise requires, the following terms, without limitation, shall have the meanings assigned to them.
Assignment means an agreement by the holder of intellectual property rights for the transfer of title and interest in intellectual property to another party.
Author means any individual who creates a work that is protectable under the Copyright Act.
Background IP means IP that was generated before the commencement of research and development collaboration.
Commercialization means the process by which any Intellectual Property assets may be adapted or used for any purpose that may provide any benefit to society or commercial use on reasonable terms. It includes assignment, licensing and establishment of spin-offs to offer the Intellectual Property as a product or service.
Confidential Information means any IP, information or data of a confidential nature, including all oral and visual information or data, and all information or data recorded in writing or in any other medium or by any other method, and all IP, information and data which CSIR is under obligation, whether contractual or otherwise, not to divulge.
Copyright means an original work of authorship which has been fixed in any tangible medium of expression from which it can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, articles, journals, software, computer programs, musical works, dramatic works, videos, multimedia products, sound recordings, paintings, pictorial, sculpture or graphical works.
Creator/Inventor means any person, who creates, conceives, reduces to practice, authors or otherwise makes a substantive intellectual contribution to the creation of IP and who meets the definition of “inventor” as implied in Ghana’s Patent Act of 2003 or the definition of “author” as generally applied in Copyright Law.
CSIR means the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and includes all the Institutes and wholly owned companies of the CSIR.
CSIR Resources means funds, supplies, equipment, physical facilities, personnel, and/or other services or property of the CSIR. The resources include all tangible resources made available by CSIR to inventors, including office, laboratory and studio space and equipment; computer hardware, software and support; secretarial services; research, teaching and laboratory assistants; supplies and utilities; funding for research and teaching activities, travel and other funding or reimbursements.
CSIR Staff means all those employed by CSIR to undertake R&D activities including - researchers, scientists, employees, and technologists, employed by CSIR permanently or temporarily.
CSIR Student means a bona fide student of the CSIR Graduate School, CSIR staff on study leave and sponsored by CSIR who are studying in tertiary institutions both in Ghana or elsewhere.
Equity means shares of stock or securities including, but not limited to, stock options, warrants or any other rights to purchase stock or securities. For the purpose of this Policy, equity means shares owned by the CSIR and its Inventors in joint venture companies or other entities arising from commercialization of CSIR IP rights.
Geographical Indications means indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a country, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of a good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.
Gross Revenues means all income received by the CSIR arising from commercialization of IP rights.
Independent Contractors or Consultants means persons hired by CSIR on a limited basis, and for a limited purpose as specified in a contract.
Industrial Design: Industrial design refers to the right granted to protect the original, ornamental and non-functional features of a product that result from design activity. The right concerns merely the appearance (the ‘design’) of a product, not the product itself. An industrial design has a term of protection of five years. It can be renewed for two consecutive periods of five years.
Innovation is an idea that has been transformed into practical reality. This means doing something new that improves a product, process or service. Many innovations can be protected through intellectual property rights.
Innovator means a person who transforms ideas into practical reality in the form of products, process or service.
Intellectual Property (IP) means all outputs of creative endeavor in any field for which proprietary rights may be obtained or enforced pursuant to any law, including the laws of Ghana, and includes, but is not limited to: Inventions (whether patentable or not), all forms of copyrighted works, designs (whether registered or unregistered), patents, new plant varieties, traditional knowledge, trademarks, know-how, trade secrets, domain names, information, data, discoveries, mathematical formulae, specifications, diagrams, expertise, techniques, research results, computer software, programming code, algorithms, compositions of matter and devices, techniques, processes, procedures, systems, formulations, databases and compilations of information, laboratory notebooks, business and research methods, the name of the CSIR, badge and other marks associated with the CSIR, Tangible Research Property, and such other property as may be specified by the CSIR in writing.
Invention means the creation of new, useful, and non-obvious ideas and/or their reduction to practice that result in, but are not limited to, new products, devices, processes, and/or methods of producing new and/or useful industrial operations and materials, any article useful in trade or any composition of matter that is industrially useful or that has commercial potential. In order for an invention to be patentable, it must be novel, non-obvious and industrially applicable. All inventions are innovations.
Invention Disclosure means the written submission to the Authorized Office such as Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on the standard or prescribed invention or innovation disclosure forms available from IPO, of a written description of any Invention that an Innovator claims he or she has made.