LAWS OF GHANA SIMPLIFIED

  Ghana’s trademark regime is regulated by the Trade Mark Act of Ghana, 2004 (Act 664). Section 1 of this act defines trademark as “any sign or combination of sings capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from the goods or services of other undertakings including words such as personal names, letters, numerals and figurative elements”.   A person who wants to exercise rights over a trademark in Ghana will have to register the said mark in Ghana under the law in order to be afforded the protections provided by the law. Several manufactures, traders, business and commercial entities find it cumbersome to overcome the challenges associated with the registration of trademark in Ghana. This writeup seeks to make clear the rules pertaining to the registration of trademarks in Ghana and specifically, the grounds that can lead to the rejection (refusal) of a trade mark registration application in Ghana.   Section 5 of the Trademarks Act has en...

  Full Judgment of the Court of Appeal in the GN Bank case can be donwloaded from this link: DOWNLOAD

The Lartin Term "IGNORANTIA JURIS NON EXCUSAT" means ignorance of the law is no excuse. This term simply means that if you do not know that something is unlawful and you do such an unlawful act, it's consequence will still be visited on you. For example, you cannot say that you did not know that touching someone without the person's consent is an assault. You will not be excused for not knowing it's a crime. Under Section 29 (2) of the Criminal Offence Act of Ghana, this Lartin term has been codified and so it's no longer just a common law maxim but a law passed by parliament of Ghana. The said section says as follow: " A person shall not, except as in this Code otherwise expressly provided, be exempt from liability to punishment for any act on the ground of ignorance that the act is prohibited by law. " In simple terms, you are expected to know any law in Ghana whether you know in fact or not. Public Policy is that, it will be impracticable t...

The question of who is a Child of a deceased person under the Ghanaian law is under exploration in this short article. Very often, the question of who is a child comes up due to questions of inheritance of the properties / estate of the deceased person usually the man. This is because, it is usually not up for question as to who is the mother of a child.   DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID test commonly known as DNA test is a recent scientific discovery that has helped mankind answer the question of paternity more accurately amongst others benefits using scientific means. However, laws on paternity have been with mankind for a very long time and during these times, DNA was not available or affordable. In Ghana for example, despite the ubiquitous use of DNA in recent times to determine paternity, Parliament is yet to enact laws that will mandate, regulate or enforce DNA tests in Ghana. The jurisprudence around the use of DNA to determine paternity is therefore largely judicially improvised...