MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Victor Adames, Carlos Hernandez and Paola Becerril, Becerril, Coca & Becerril
Appeal A copyright registration refusal can be appealed through one of the following instances: • Review recourse: An optional remedy that must be filed before INDAUTOR. It will be resolved by the hierarchical superior of the government offi - cial who issued the refusal. This recourse must be submitted within 15 working days from the date the refusal was served. • Nullity appeal: This must be filed before the Spe - cialised Chamber for Intellectual Property Mat - ters of the Federal Court of Administrative Affairs (FCAA). It must be submitted within 30 working days from the date the refusal was served. Addi - tionally, the nullity appeal can be filed against the decision issued in the review recourse, if the latter was chosen. • Amparo appeal: The decision issued by the FCAA can be challenged through an Amparo appeal filed before the Federal Circuit Courts (FCC). This remedy must be submitted within 15 working days from the date the FCAA’s decision was served. The ruling issued in this instance is final and not subject to further appeal. Correction As stated in the regulations of the FCL, the interested parties may request the correction of transcription or other errors directly attributable to INDAUTOR, within a period of no more than three months after the issu -
the same trade mark or another confusingly similar, in Mexico, for the same or similar products or services, provided that the third party had begun to use the trade mark, uninterruptedly, before the filing date of the application for registration or the first use declared therein, shall have the right to request registration of the trade mark, within five years following the day on which the registration was published, in which case this user must first file and obtain the invalidation of the prior trade mark. Doing so will confer the following legal benefits: • exclusive rights to the use of a certain trade mark for its title holder in Mexico; • it will constitute an intangible asset; • it will ensure the granting of licences on behalf of its titleholder; and • it will give the right to prohibit third parties from using identical or confusingly similar marks in commerce if such use could mislead consumers or dilute the mark’s distinctiveness and to file legal actions against infringement, dilution, or counter - feiting, including through administrative, civil, and criminal actions. The guidelines and information to be included in the corresponding application for registration changes will depend on the type of trade mark to be registered. For regular trade marks – such as wordmarks, designs, 3-D devices and mixed marks – it would be mandatory to include specimens of the same or their full visual representation. For non-traditional trade marks, and or, secondary meaning/trade dress, it will be manda - tory to attach visual evidence on the configuration of the trade marks and a detailed description of the dis - The national authority in charge of the registration of industrial property in Mexico is IMPI. No other author - ity has faculties for the administration and granting of IP rights in Mexico. IMPI maintains a publicly avail - able website of the Trade Mark Register: ACERVO DE MARCAS. While trade mark searches are not manda - tory to initiate a trade mark registration procedure, it is of utmost importance to conduct them to determine tinctive elements to register. 4.2 Trade Mark Register
ance of the certificate. 3.10 Related Rights Please refer to 2.6 Related Rights .
4. Trade Mark Registrations and Applications 4.1 Trade Mark Registration
The Mexican trade mark system is based upon the registration of a distinctive sign to grant title holders an exclusive right to its use. While the FLPIP acknowl - edges usage of a distinctive sign as a way of having a better right to apply for registration, it does this only in cases where the user has bona fide intentions. The FLPIP states that a third party who in good faith uses
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