A multinational noticed a meme circulating about its product and did something most legal departments would not: it filed the meme as a trademark before IMPI.
Cheap, fast, and it converted an uncontrolled piece of internet culture into an owned asset.
Can a meme really be a trademark?
Yes, if it functions as one. A trademark is any sign capable of distinguishing goods or services in the market and of being represented in a way that lets the public and the authority know what is protected. A phrase, an image or a combination of both can qualify. What it cannot be is descriptive of the product, generic, or already confusingly similar to an earlier mark.
The harder question is ownership of the underlying material. If the meme uses a photograph, a film still or a character created by someone else, registering it as a trademark does not clear the copyright. Those are separate rights and both need to be resolved.
The practical takeaway
When your brand generates organic content, treat it as inventory. Identify what is distinctive, check that you own or have licensed the underlying work, and file. The alternative is watching a competitor or an opportunist register the phrase your customers associate with you.
In Mexico the first to file wins. Speed is a legal strategy, not just a marketing one.
Two rights, two owners
A meme usually involves someone else work. The photograph or the illustration underneath is protected by copyright from the moment it was created, whether or not it was registered (article 162 of the Mexican Federal Copyright Law), and the person in the image has rights over their own likeness.
So registering the meme as a trademark settles the trademark question and none of the others. You may hold a registration and still be using an image you have no licence to, which is an uncomfortable position to be in once the mark starts making money.
On the trademark side the test is distinctiveness: a sign that merely describes the goods, or that has become the common way to refer to them, will be refused under article 173 of the Mexican Industrial Property Law. Memes burn out fast, and a sign everyone is using is a sign nobody can own.