On 17th July 2023 the UK Government published all documents relating to the UK’s accession to the £12trn Pacific Rim trading bloc, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – including all side letters temporarily setting aside the patent grace period provisions in Article 18.38.
The CPTPP is a free-trade agreement (FTA) between eleven countries around the Pacific Rim: Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan.
The UK submitted its formal application to join CPTPP on 1 February 2021. The CPTPP members agreed to start negotiations with the UK on 2 June 2021.
The side letters between the UK and each of the eleven CPTPP member states that temporarily set aside the provisions of the CPTPP that require a grace period for patents can be viewed on the Department for Business and Trade site. Read more