RHONE-POULENCE S.A. AND ANOTHER vs. GHANA NATIONAL TRADING CORPORATION

In this application, the plaintiffs are asking for an order of interim injunction restraining the defendant from infringing the plaintiffs’ patent rights in respect of the Ghana Patent No. 522, and from offering for sale a drug, called metronidazole, the product involved in the said infringement. The two plaintiffs are limited liability companies. The first plaintiff is the owner of the United Kingdom Patent No. 836854. This patent was sealed in the United Kingdom Patent Office, on 28 September 1960, and it covered an invention entitled the “New imidazole derivations and processes for their preparation.” The said patent was later registered in Ghana, under the Patents Registration Ordinance, Cap. 179 (1951 Rev.), as Patent No. 522, and dated 18 October 1962. Patents covering the said invention have also been sealed by the first plaintiff in other countries, namely, West Germany, United States of America, Soviet Union, Japan, Holland, Canada, Denmark and Sweden. The second p...