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Recent reforms to the Mexican Industrial Property Law dealing with trademark priority rights

  by Alonso Camargo

On June 10, 2011 a reform to the Regulations of the Mexican Industrial Property Law was published in the Mexican Official Gazette, effective as from June 13, 2011.

This reform is aimed to expedite prosecution of trademark (slogans included) applications, being under this context the most relevant change the one related to applications claiming Paris Convention priority.

As from June 13, 2011, the filing of a certified copy of the priority application will not be required any longer. Consequently, based on the reform, for having priority recognized by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), it will only be necessary to indicate the priority filing date, serial number and country of origin in the application papers.

Since Mexican Law provides as grounds of invalidation of a trademark registration when applicant provided false information in the application papers, such grounds would apply if the data concerning the priority application were false.

It is important to highlight that this new provision applies to all Mexican trademark and slogan applications filed as from June 13, 2011.

However, for those cases filed before June 10, 2011, it would still be necessary to submit the certified copy of the priority application within the next three months as of filing date in Mexico for the recognition of the corresponding priority rights.