The House of Lords International Agreements Committee has today written to the Government to ask what its negotiating intentions are with regard to the patent provisions in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement.
The committee has highlighted in the letter to the Minister for Investment, Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt, that there is considerable concern that accession to the Agreement could mean that the UK will be forced to leave the European Patent Convention, at considerable cost to the UK patent industry and wider economy. In written evidence to the committee, the patent industry has estimated the impact of leaving the Convention would amount to a loss of GDP of £837 million per year, with further direct costs to business and Government.
The committee has asked the Minister, whether the UK will be seeking a derogation from that Article, and if such a carve-out will likely be granted. It is also seeking reassurance that the UK-Australia Agreement—which may be modelled in part on the CPTPP Agreement—will not give rise to a similar issue.
