Your registered trademark has a hidden expiry date at three years, and if you ignore it you lose the registration. This is the most common and most avoidable mistake in Mexican trademark practice.
The declaration of actual use
Article 233 of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property requires the owner to declare that the mark is actually being used, within the three months following the third anniversary of the grant.
Miss it and the registration lapses automatically. There is no reminder from IMPI, no grace period, and no way to revive it. The only route back is to file a new application, which competes with anything filed in the meantime.
What the declaration requires
A statement of the specific goods or services on which the mark is used. If you registered five products and only use two, you declare two, and the registration is reduced accordingly. Declaring use that does not exist creates a different problem.
How to make sure it does not happen
Put the date in a calendar the day the registration issues, with a reminder ninety days ahead. Keep dated evidence of use: invoices, packaging, advertising, screenshots of the website.
We track these deadlines for the portfolios we manage. If you registered a mark around three years ago and cannot remember filing anything since, check the date now.
The same rule, used in your favour
Most owners meet article 233 as an obligation. It is also a tool. When a prior registration blocks your application, the first thing to check is whether its owner ever declared real and effective use within the three months following the third anniversary of its grant. If they did not, the registration lapsed by operation of law and the obstacle may not exist.
That check is part of any serious availability search, and it is the difference between abandoning a name and filing it.
What the declaration has to show
Real and effective use in Mexican territory, of the mark as registered or with modifications that do not alter its distinctive character, stated against the specific goods or services it is applied to. Protection then continues only for what was declared, so the evidence should be gathered before the window opens rather than assembled inside it.