Declaration of actual use

Miss it and the registration is simply gone

Within the three months following the third anniversary of the grant, the owner of a Mexican trademark must declare its real and effective use, stating the specific goods or services it is applied to and paying the corresponding fee (article 233 of the Mexican Industrial Property Law).

If nothing is filed, the registration lapses by operation of law. No notice is sent, no decision is issued, and no declaration from IMPI is required. It is the cheapest way to lose a mark that took years and real money to build.

The part almost nobody is told

Protection continues only for the goods or services on which use was declared. A registration covering twenty items where use is declared on three survives as a registration for three. The rest falls away, silently, and competitors are free to move in.

So the declaration is not a form to tick. It is a decision about scope, and it should be prepared with evidence that matches what you actually sell.

How we handle it

• We calculate the exact three-month window from the grant date. Terms expressed in months run date to date and include non-business days (article 21).
• We tell you in advance, with time to gather evidence rather than improvise it.
• We review which goods and services the evidence genuinely supports before anything is filed.
• We prepare and file the declaration and confirm the registration remains alive.
• We flag whether a fresh application is needed for anything the business has started selling since.

We also run this check in the other direction: when a prior registration blocks a client, the first thing we look at is whether its owner ever declared use. A surprising number have not, and the obstacle is not an obstacle at all.