Intellectual property
The Intellectual Property Chapter covers multiple forms of intellectual property ("IP"), including patents, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, trade secrets, trade marks and designs, as well as their enforcement. The text sets minimum standards of protection across these areas, creating a shared baseline of protection in CPTPP Parties’ domestic regimes.
	The Act makes changes in relation to geographical indications, and copyright and related rights.
	Geographical indications ("GIs") protect the names of products which have a special relationship with their geographical origin. A UK example is Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. Article 18.32 of the Intellectual Property Chapter sets out that procedures must be in place to allow interested persons to object to an application for the protection of a GI, and to seek the cancellation of a protected GI, on specified grounds.
	To comply with this obligation, the Act amends domestic law (assimilated law, known as retained EU law before 01 January 2024) so that, in relation to agricultural products and foodstuffs ("agri-foods") only, an application to register a GI can be opposed on the ground it is likely to cause confusion with a pre-existing trade mark or application for a trade mark. The Act also introduces the ability to cancel a registered agri-food GI on the grounds that, as at the time the GI was applied for, it was likely to cause confusion with a pre-existing trade mark or application for a trade mark, or because it was a generic term. These new grounds will also apply at other stages related to applications to register a GI.
	The amendments made by the Act will apply to both agri-food protected designations of origin ("PDOs") and agri-food protected geographical indications ("PGIs"). PDOs and PGIs are both categories of agri-food GIs in domestic law. References in these notes to GIs mean PGIs and PDOs.
	In relation to copyright and related rights, each CPTPP Party is required to provide certain rights to performers and producers who meet the eligibility criteria for protection as specified in the CPTPP. Article 18.62.1 of the Intellectual Property Chapter sets out that CPTPP Parties are required to afford rights to:
performers and producers of phonograms that are nationals of another CPTPP Party; and
performances or phonograms first published or fixed in the territory of another CPTPP Party.
	The eligibility criteria under the CPTPP by which performers can qualify for rights in their performances is wider than the criteria currently provided for in UK law. This means that some performers who should qualify for protection under the CPTPP when it enters into force for the UK would not get this. The Act therefore expands the eligibility criteria by which performers can qualify for rights in their performances in the UK.