Trademark watch

The register does not warn you

IMPI will refuse applications that are identical or confusingly similar to yours. It will not, however, catch everything, and it does not notify you when someone files close to your mark. The one formal opportunity to object is narrow: once an application is published, third parties have one month to oppose it (article 221 of the Mexican Industrial Property Law).

That month is published in the Industrial Property Gazette, and notification by Gazette takes effect on publication alone (article 20). If nobody is reading it on your behalf, the window opens and closes without you.

Why opposing early is cheaper than acting late

An opposition filed inside the window is a written submission. Dealing with the same mark after it registers means a cancellation or nullity action, with evidence, delay and considerably more cost, against an opponent who by then has a certificate and may have built a business on it.

The economics are not close. Watching is the inexpensive part of a trademark portfolio.

What the service covers

• Monitoring of the Industrial Property Gazette for applications identical or similar to your marks, in your classes and in classes that touch your market.
• An alert with our assessment of whether the application is a real risk or noise, not a raw list.
• A recommendation on whether to oppose, to write to the applicant first, or to leave it.
• Preparation and filing of the opposition within the one-month term where you decide to act.
• Watching for non-use: whether a conflicting registration ever declared use, which often decides the strategy.

Watching matters most right after a launch, a funding round or any press coverage, which is exactly when imitators start filing.