Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will commission an independent assessment into the compatibility of membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership with membership of the (a) European Patent Office and (b) European Patent Convention.

The UK has ensured that accession negotiations with CPTPP are consistent with the UK’s interests, the Government’s policies and priorities on intellectual property, and with the UK’s existing international obligations, including the non-EU European Patent Convention (EPC) which establishes the European Patent Office.

The UK has not agreed to any provisions that would require us to diverge from the EPC and therefore an independent assessment is not required. With respect to Article 18.38 of the agreement (Grace Period), the UK has agreed with the CPTPP Parties that we will only comply with that article once necessary amendments to the EPC have been made in line with Article 18.38, and not before.