International trademark registration

Two routes into Mexico, and they are not equivalent

A Mexican registration protects you in Mexico and nowhere else. To cover other markets you either file nationally in each one or designate them through the Madrid Protocol, to which Mexico has been a party since 2013.

Madrid is cheaper and simpler to administer from one place. The trade-off is control: a designation is examined under local law like any national application, and when IMPI raises an objection the response has to be filed locally, in Spanish, by a representative with a Mexican address for service.

What changes once there is a provisional refusal

At that point the convenience of Madrid stops. Every submission to IMPI must be in writing and in Spanish, and foreign-language documents need a translation (article 13 of the Mexican Industrial Property Law). The notification takes legal effect on publication in the Industrial Property Gazette alone, whether or not the courtesy notice arrives (article 20), so the clock runs whether anyone is watching or not.

From there you have two months to respond (article 225) and a further two months that run automatically on payment of the corresponding fee (article 226). And if the answer involves changing the mark or the list of goods and services, that is not an amendment: it becomes a new filing with a new date (article 227).

What we do

• Advise whether a designation or a direct national filing fits the plan, before either is committed to.
• Act as your representative in Mexico, including the address for service.
• Answer provisional refusals and office actions on designations and national filings.
• Coordinate with counsel abroad so the Mexican position does not contradict what is argued elsewhere.
• Keep the post-grant calendar: declaration of use at the third anniversary, and renewal.

If you are a foreign firm instructing us on behalf of a client, see our associate services for foreign counsel.