The Mexican Intellectual Property Law defines a Commercial Message as “phrases and sentences intended tomake public announcements on business branches or trade negotiations, industry or services, products orservices, for purposes of making a distinction from similar ones”. Like trademarks, commercial messages aredistinctive signs that help distinguish products and services from those offered by competitors, nevertheless, theyoften receive less attention than trademarks. Commercial Messages are often confused with “slogans” in themarketing of specific products or services in disregard of the potential that such commercial messages may haveto penetrate a market effectively to the point of becoming the most distinctive element of a product or service.Thus, it is highly recommended that a company or business reviews whether they have such commercialmessages, and if so, whether such commercial messages are protected under applicable law. In general terms,commercial messages are subject to legal provisions that are equivalent to those that apply to trademarks, such asthe registration process (filing with the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property), protection (can restrict thirdparties from using a phonetic, grammatical and conceptual imitation) and term (10-year renewable terms).
