Mexico’s amended Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property has turned ambush marketing into a more immediate compliance issue for brands planning campaigns around the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The reform published on 3 April adds a specific administrative infringement to Article 386 of the LFPPI, covering acts that lead the public to reasonably assume an official sponsorship relationship between a distinctive sign and a mass public or private event.For non-sponsors, the risk now extends beyond unauthorised use of official logos. Social media copy, promotional hashtags, colour...
Mexico’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has updated its practice guidance for industrial designs filed through the Hague System, with a useful clarification on the country’s 12-month novelty grace period. Applicants who disclosed a design before filing, for example at an international exhibition or product launch, should not assume that the grace period will be applied automatically. Where protection is sought in Mexico, supporting evidence must be submitted in the required form when filing the Hague international application or within the relevant period after the Mexican...
On 14 July 2026, the World Intellectual Property Organization announced that the PCT Assembly had approved the appointment of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Once operational, IMPI will become the 26th PCT International Authority and the third in Latin America and the Caribbean. In practical terms, it will be able to issue international search reports and written opinions, and to carry out international preliminary examination when...
Mexico’s reform of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property brings a procedural issue into sharper focus: IMPI will have statutory maximum time limits for several key proceedings, including patent substantive examination, trademark registration, oppositions and renewals. Where those limits are exceeded, the authority must explain the reasons. For applicants, the main gain is not only speed. It is a clearer administrative timetable in a jurisdiction where waiting periods have often been difficult to plan around.The reform will not, by itself, remove backlogs or guarantee...
Mexico’s third-year declaration of actual and effective use is no longer the kind of maintenance filing that can be treated as an afterthought. For registrations that fall within this regime, the owner must file within the three-month window after the third anniversary and tie the surviving scope of protection to the goods or services that are actually in use. As discussion grows around digital filing, automated checks and the risk of manufactured use materials, this step is starting to look less like a form and more like an evidence test.What can already be verified from public sources is...
On 19 June 2026, Mexico’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) issued a practice-oriented guide on proving trade mark infringement and bad-faith filings involving virtual cross-border storefronts and e-commerce platforms. The document is aimed at a market problem that no longer looks like classic offline counterfeiting: anonymous sellers, shifting links, multi-platform migration and overseas operators trading through virtual shops that can disappear and reappear quickly. As Mexico moves toward the 22 July 2026 implementation milestone of its latest industrial property reform package,...
The 3 July IMPI update matters because it appears to move Mexican design enforcement closer to the filing stage for Hague designations, rather than leaving meaningful action until after final grant. Where an applicant opts for early publication and is prepared to post security, the practical message is that enforcement leverage may begin earlier, even while substantive examination is still unfolding.That is a bigger shift than it first sounds. For many brands, the real problem in Mexico has not been the absence of design rights, but the lag between registration procedure, marketplace...
Mexico’s new Regulations under the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property will take effect on 23 July 2026. Published on 28 April, the 202-article instrument replaces the previous regulatory framework and clarifies procedural points left open by the 2020 law, including statutory periods, submission and assessment of evidence, online infringement proceedings, patent and provisional filing practice, non-traditional marks and acquired distinctiveness.The main gain is greater predictability, not lighter compliance. Companies with pending applications, licences or enforcement...
This article updates our report of 12 July, “Mexico’s New Industrial Property Rules Take Effect on 23 July”.
Mexico’s new Regulation implementing the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, published in the Official Gazette on 28 April 2026, will take effect on 23 July—the 60th working day after publication—and replace the framework dating from 1994. According to the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), the regulation gives more detailed operational guidance on procedures, deadlines and filing requirements under the current industrial property law.With the...
This article updates our report of 19 July, “Mexico’s New Industrial Property Regulation Takes Effect on 23 July”.
Mexico’s new Regulations under the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property took effect on 23 July 2026, replacing the framework in place since 1994. The rules refine electronic filing, notifications, evidence and administrative enforcement, and introduce a dedicated framework for online infringement proceedings. That online route is not yet fully operational, however: IMPI must still issue the implementing agreement, which the transitional provisions require...
Mexico’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) further clarified on 5 August 2026 how the new Technology Transfer Registry will operate as Articles 193–196 of the revised Regulations to the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property are implemented. The registry is intended to cover technology-transfer arrangements, intellectual-property licences and franchise agreements, bringing filing details, agreement information and subsequent updates into a more defined compliance process.For multinational companies, the practical issue is not the filing step alone but how registration...
On 23 September the Mexican Senate's joint committees on Justice, Economy and Legislative Studies (First) approved, with modifications, the report on the bill sent by President Sheinbaum on 29 May 2026 to amend the Federal Criminal Code and the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property; Milenio reports 25 votes in favour, 11 against and 2 abstentions, and the report now goes to the steering board for a floor vote. The core change replaces the intent-to-profit element of intellectual property offences with a commercial-scale standard: conduct is at commercial scale when its...
