MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Enrique Espejel, Diego Mora-Jensen, José Joaquín Pacheco and Luis Enrique Pérez García, White & Case
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position In Mexico, there are several mechanisms via which the assets owned by the counterparty in a court case can be identified. Such information can generally be accessed through public records that are available to any person or, where it is in the hands of private parties (or even the State), through court orders. The following is a summary of the sources of information and the ways in which a private individual can access various types of information. Public Information Legal status of real estate This information is available in the public property registries of each Mexican state. Each of these pub - lic registries contains information regarding the legal status of any real estate property, such as the owner or co-owners and the location of the property. Each public property registry allows users to ascertain what real estate an individual or legal entity owns, as well as the existence of third-party charges over such real estate or any other encumbrances. Legal status of patents and industrial property records The Industrial Property Gazette of the Mexican Insti - tute of Industrial Property is the means of national communication through which information on patents and industrial property registrations is made public. This gazette can be consulted through the Industrial Property Gazette Information System ( Sistema de Información de la Gaceta de la Propiedad Industrial , or SIGA), which contains collected information dating back to 1873 on registered patents and – more impor - tantly – their owners. This public system allows users to learn which patents and registrations an individual or legal entity owns, as well as the validity of such patents and registrations. Legal status of rights related to copyright Copyright has two facets protected by the Federal Copyright Law: moral rights and economic rights. The economic right of copyright is the recognition of the exclusive enjoyment of economic prerogatives and privileges by virtue of the creation of a literary or
artistic work. The economic right of a literary work or creation is its value for pecuniary purposes. The Public Registry of Copyright is the means by which all acts related to the ownership and aliena - tion of the economic rights of authors are publicly recorded. Therefore, the Public Registry of Copyright – managed and administered by the National Copy - right Institute – allows users to learn which individual or legal entity holds the economic rights to a literary work and to find out whether a person or legal entity holds any economic rights subject to seizure. Legal status of commercial transactions and securities subject to public offering and intermediation In Mexico, the Public Registry of Commerce is a universally accessible system through which acts of commerce in Mexican territory are made public and the creation of legal entities under Mexican law is recorded. This registry reveals a legal identity’s share - holders, as well as its main corporate acts and the amount of its capital stock. This information is relevant to the determination of the asset position of a party. Lately, this registry has been updated in order to allow digital searches of this kind of records through a digi - tal system (SIGER), which is accessible to the public. The National Securities Registry ( Registro Nacional de Valores , or RNV) is a public means of dissemination administered by the National Banking and Securities Commission, via which the legal status of investment funds organised under the Investment Funds Law and securities of authorised issuers is made known. This registry enables individuals to identify securities issued (bonds, stock certificates, debentures, etc). Legal status of assets subject to a guarantee The Sole Registry of Personal Property Securities ( Registro Único de Garantías Mobiliarias , or RUG) is a section of the Public Registry of Commerce through which financial institutions and creditors publicise the guarantees over movable assets they receive from their debtors. This registry provides information on the status of encumbrances on any movable property that may be subject to seizure. Although the main users are creditors and public notaries, the information con - tained in this registry is available to anyone.
302 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook