A new brand usually announces itself. The moment a company files, the application is published and anyone watching the databases can work out what product is coming.
Apple has spent years solving that with a manoeuvre that is entirely legal and that almost nobody in Mexico takes advantage of.
The move
Instead of filing first in its main market, it registers the mark in a small country — Liechtenstein, for instance — whose registers tend not to be indexed in the global databases that the press and competitors monitor.
Months later it files everywhere else. And here is the key piece: it does not lose its place in the queue.
The right of priority
The Paris Convention recognizes a right of priority. Whoever files a trademark application in a member country has six months to file in the others claiming that first date.
The practical effect is considerable: even if the Mexican application is filed five months later, it is treated as having the earlier date. Any third party who applied for the same sign in between falls behind.
And that matters because, in Mexico, the filing date determines priority against third parties (article 220 of the Industrial Property Law). The right of priority is not a technicality: it buys months without losing your turn.
For patents the priority period is twelve months; for trademarks and industrial designs, six.
What a company that is not Apple takes from this
You do not need to file in Liechtenstein. What is usable is something else.
- File before you announce. The application fixes your place in the queue. The announcement alerts everyone — including whoever might get there first.
- Use priority if you plan to export. If you file in Mexico and intend to sell abroad, you have six months to extend it to other countries keeping your original date.
- Do not disclose prematurely anything that requires novelty. For patents and industrial designs, showing the product before filing can destroy the right.
The reverse mistake, which I do see often
Launching the campaign, opening the social accounts, printing packaging and then going to IMPI. By then the name has circulated, and all it takes is somebody filing a day earlier for all that effort to rest on a sign that belongs to someone else.
It is not a theoretical risk. It is, in our experience, the most common way to lose a name.
If you are about to launch something, write to us before the announcement: the clearance study is free of charge.