Mexico's IMPI Simplifies Trade Mark Filing: Traditional Marks Merged into IMPI-01-001, Non-Traditional Marks into IMPI-01-002, Data Carried by One Form
The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 28 September an Acuerdo establishing administrative simplification measures for various procedures before IMPI (trade mark applications), which substantially simplifies trade mark filing and merges application types and forms: the former separate procedures for traditional marks, collective marks, certification marks, slogans and the publication of trade names are consolidated into a single IMPI-01-001 'application for protection of distinctive signs'. Applications for non-traditional marks, namely holographic, sound, scent and trade dress marks and combinations of them, are consolidated into IMPI-01-002, which likewise covers collective and certification marks.
Article One of the Acuerdo removes a series of requirements that previously had to be filed as separate physical documents, including the power of attorney registration number, the applicant's general details, the applicant's domicile, the address for service, the details of the sign, the location of the establishment and the priority claim; this information is now carried by the single application form, and it should be noted that the information itself is not abolished, only its separate submission.
The consolidated application still requires the form and proof of payment and, where applicable, other documents such as consents or evidence of acquired distinctiveness, a Spanish translation, legalisation or apostille of foreign documents, the articles and rules of use for collective and certification marks, evidence of actual use for trade names and the carrier for sound and scent marks.
The transitory provisions state that the Acuerdo enters into force on the business day following its publication, that applications filed before then continue under the previous procedures, that until the technological solution through the National Digital Investment Window (VDNI) is implemented, enabled and operating the procedures continue to be filed physically, that IMPI must amend the Regulations of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property within one year of entry into force, that it may not demand requirements beyond those in the Acuerdo or documents already in its files, and that it must update the single procedures portal within ten business days; the Acuerdo was signed on 11 September by Director General Vidal Llerenas Morales.
The Acuerdo is part of IMPI's series of simplification and digitalisation measures this year, and its practical effect is to compress trade mark filing from several procedures and many documents into two consolidated forms, reducing the sources of formal objections; the information requirements themselves are not reduced, only the way they are carried, and until the VDNI technological solution is in operation filing remains a physical procedure, so agents must track both the switch of forms and the electronic arrangements that follow.
J&C recommends that companies and agents with trade mark work in Mexico update their filing templates and checklists at once, entering applicant, address, representative, priority and sign details on the new form instead of duplicate separate documents; handle cases filed before entry into force under the previous procedure; and keep filing physically until VDNI goes live, following IMPI's electronic filing guidance and the official versions of forms IMPI-01-001 and IMPI-01-002 so that no office action is triggered by the wrong form or filing route.
Source: dof.gob.mx
