Mexican law establishes various causes to nullify registration of a trademark. This item focuses on the cause contained in article 151,section V of the Mexican Industrial Property law (Ley de Propiedad Industrial) which states that any authorized agent, user ordistributor of a trademark registered outside of Mexico may request and obtain registration of the foreign trademark in Mexico withoutconsent of the party listed as owner in Mexico if the listed owner’s registration was obtained in bad faith. The authorized owner mayfile a proceeding to nullify the foreign trademark previously registered in Mexico by the unauthorized party. Mexican law recognizesthat the trademark registration procedure may be abused when trademarks rightfully belong to foreign parties, and such foreign partiesdesire to grant the right to use their marks to authorized Mexican parties. There is no statute of limitations limiting the right of parties toseek nullity of a trademark that was registered illegally in Mexico by an unauthorized party.
