– Patents Act, 2003 (Act 657), entry into force (Gazette Notification) December 31, 2003. (Implementing Regulations are yet to be promulgated.)
– Patents (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1060), date of Gazette Notification December 29, 2020.
– Patent Regulations, 1996 (L.I. 1616).

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since June 12, 1976.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act of July 14, 1967, since September 28, 1976.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since January 1, 1995.
– Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), since February 26, 1997 (Chapters I and II).
– ARIPO, Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs, since April 25, 1984.

Applicant(s): inventor or his legal successor or assignee. 

Applicant not resident or not having its principal place of business in the country: must be represented by a legal practitioner resident and practicing in the country. 

Naming of inventor: compulsory unless the inventor indicates that he does not wish to be named, in a special written declaration signed by the inventor and addressed to the Registrar. Promises or undertakings made by an inventor to the effect that the inventor will make the declaration is without legal effect.

Exceptions to protection: discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; plants and animals other than microorganisms; schemes, rules or methods for doing business, performing purely mental acts or playing games; methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy, as well as diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body (this provision does not apply to products for use in any of these methods); plant varieties, inventions the commercial exploitation of which would be contrary to public order or morality; essentially biological processes for the protection of plants or animals other than micro-biological processes and all or part of natural living beings and biological materials found  in nature, including the genome or germ plasm of any natural living being and the natural  biological  processes and known substance for which a new use has been discovered except where the use of the known  substance constitutes an invention that is new, involves an inventive step.

Novelty: universal novelty with a twelve-month grace period for non-prejudicial disclosures.

Priority: may be claimed as provided for in the Paris Convention, for one or more earlier national, regional or international application filed by the applicant or his predecessor in title in or for any state party to the Paris Convention or any member of the WTO.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney appointing the agent, no notarization or legalization;
2. Full name and address of inventor(s), if to be mentioned;
3. Title of the invention;
4. A description which shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be carried out by a person having ordinary skill in the art, and shall, in particular, indicate, at least, one mode known to the applicant for carrying out the invention; at the filing date or where priority is claimed at the priority date of the application;
5. Claims (claims shall be clear and concise and shall be fully supported by the description);
6. Abstract;
7. Drawings, if any;
8. If priority is claimed, indication of country, date and file number of basic foreign application;
9. A statement justifying the applicant's right to the patent where the applicant is not the inventor;
10. An English translation of any international application designating Ghana where the application is not in English.

Electronic filing: not available. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted. However, scanned copies of wet signed documents are accepted; there is no need to send the original at a later date.

PCT international applications: may be filed in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty concluded in Washington on June 19, 1970 and regulations made thereunder in which case the Registrar’s Office in Ghana shall serve as a receiving Office.  Time limit for entering national phase: 30 months for both Chapters I and II.

For a change of name or address: copy of an extract from the Commercial Register confirming the change of name or address.

Examination: the patent is examined as to form and as to substance.

Amendment of application: the applicant may, up to the time when the application is in order for grant, amend the application provided that the amendment does not go beyond the disclosure in the original application.

Appeal: the applicant may appeal to the High Court against any decision by the Registrar.

Granting: at the end of the examination, if successful, the patent is granted and a certificate of grant and a copy of the patent are issued to the applicant (in paper format).

Publication: a reference to the grant is published by the Registrar in the prescribed manner.

Duration: twenty years from the filing date of the application.

Annuities: in order to maintain an application or a patent, an annual fee is to be paid, starting one year after the filing date of the application. 

Annuities grace period: six months shall be allowed for late payment of annual fee subject to payment of a surcharge.

Compulsory license: after four years from the filing date of the application or three years from the granting of the patent, whichever period last expires, any person may request the High Court to grant a non-voluntary license on specified grounds and subject to specific conditions provided for in the law. The High Court may issue a non-voluntary license if satisfied that the patented invention is not exploited or is insufficiently exploited, by working the invention locally or by importation, in the country.

Invalidation of patent: any interested party may in proceedings instituted by him/her against the owner of a patent, request the High Court to invalidate the patent. The High Court shall invalidate the patent if the person requesting the invalidation proves that a person has not complied with the requirements of specific provisions of Act 657 or if the owner of the patent is not the inventor or the inventor's successor in title.

Exploitation of patent by government or by third persons authorized by government: in the public interest, in particular, national security, nutrition, health or the development of other vital sectors of the economy or to remedy a practice determined by a judicial or administrative body to be anti-competitive, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice may decide that the patented invention, even in the absence of the authorization of the owner of the patent, be exploited by a government agency or by a third person designated by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, subject to specific conditions.