Organisation: Mexican Institute of Industrial Property

In 2005 amendments to the Mexican Industrial Property Law designed a procedure for declaring the well-known character of a mark. A recent judicial precedent contributes to the understanding of how these amendments have been interpreted

29 April 2016

The IMPI has recently begun to object to, or refuse, the registration of notorious and famous marks by a party other than the rightful owner, based on a simple estimation of the notoriety or fame of the mark. The IMPI was previously reluctant to do so, resulting in countless registrations for notorious or famous marks being granted to trademark hijackers in Mexico.

02 April 2015

Following a six-year struggle and several appeals, Zumba Fitness LLC has obtained the registration of the word mark ZUMBA for sport-related services in Class 41. Although the figurative mark ZUMBA was accepted for registration without any obstacle, the word mark ZUMBA was rejected by the examiner under Article 90.IV of the Industrial Property Law on the ground that it was descriptive.

06 February 2015

<i>World Trademark Review</i> presents its annual focus on the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, polling users to gauge sentiment on its performance, assessing the impact of upcoming legislative changes and presenting updates direct from Alicante.

31 August 2014

The ruling by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property that three mobile phone carriers are infringing on the trademark of competitor iFone in regards to their use of ‘iPhone’ in advertising materials provides some concrete takeaways for counsel.

13 June 2014

Leading officials of the trademark issuing authorities of India and Mexico have offered a riposte to recent criticisms levelled at their offices.

13 May 2014

The Trademark Office has recently adopted extremely formalistic and rigid criteria during the formalities examination stage, requiring that the descriptions of the products or services match exactly those provided in the alphabetical list of products and services of the Nice Classification. This approach is causing important delays in the prosecution of trademark applications, and trademark owners are incurring extra costs.

14 November 2013

The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, together with several members of the Mexican Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, is working towards the creation of a Trademark Examiners’ Manual. One part of the task consists in the creation of guidelines concerning the absolute/relative grounds for refusal; discussions are due to begin within the next few weeks, with the aim of finalising the guidelines by the end of the year.

26 July 2013

Colombia, Mexico and New Zealand acceded to the Madrid system in the 12 months that have passed since last year’s INTA meeting in Washington DC. <i>WTR</i> spoke to the heads of the three countries’ IP offices to find out how the change has impacted on trademark practice.

07 May 2013

The Madrid Protocol has entered into force in Mexico. On February 8 the decree promulgating the protocol was published in the <i>Federal Official Gazette</i>, and on February 12 the Agreement Establishing the Guidelines for handling applications, requests and filings under the protocol was published. Among other things, each Madrid Protocol application filed before IMPI shall be submitted in typed text and drafted in Spanish.

22 March 2013