Sarah Norkor Anku is a legal practitioner with particular interest in Intellectual Property Law and Practice. She is a Lecturer and Public Speaker with over a decade of experience covering Intellectual Property (IP) law and practice, Intellectual Assets Management, IP Policy development, Business Acquisitions and Mergers. 

She is currently the Senior Partner, Head of Intellectual property and Patent & Trademarks Attorney at Anku.Anku At-Law, Accra, Ghana and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She is also an MPhil IP Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and IP Expert for the AfCFTA Policy Network – Ghana & Diaspora.

Prior to her current position, she was an Assistant Registrar-General and State Attorney at the Registrar-General’s Department, where she led many breakthrough initiatives to transform the operations of the department, including setting up a functional Patent Office and establishing Administrative procedures for the grant of patents and utility model certificates. 

She has represented the State at various international fora, including committees at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ARIPO and the Inter-Governmental Action Group on Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA). She was elected the first Vice Chairperson of the 18th and 19th Sessions of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP).

Sarah contributed to negotiations on international protocols on IP and other legally binding international instruments. She has developed University IP policies and reviewed related documents, in addition to peer reviewing IP articles for publication at ARIPO and Journals, including the UGLJ. 

She was a Key Expert and IP Consultant for the Danish Technological Institute, Denmark, on the ACP-EU-TBT Programme: “Developing Awareness and Professional Skills of Intellectual Property Tools in Tanzania”.
Her academic publications on IP include a jointly authored book on “Contemporary Management Strategies in Intellectual Property Rights Relevant to NAM and Other Developing Countries”, 2014, Daya Publishing, Astral International PVT. Ltd, New Dehli.
Her recent international speaking engagements include presentations at The IPR/Litigation Gorilla, Singapore and Dubai, 2019; Africa BIO Convention– South Africa, 2019; and IP World Summit, Netherlands 2019.
Sarah is a leading voice on IP in Africa and currently leading a campaign to raise public awareness on IP practice and its role in the economic development of countries. She blogs regularly on the subject via her social media handles and also on www.ankuatlaw.com