Protection for Foreign Trademark Owners against Unauthorized Registrations in Mexico

It is always possible that distributors, representatives or agents (or any other type of commercial relation) of foreign individuals or companiescould attempt to register in Mexico trademarks owned by third parties and protected by registrations outside of Mexico. Mexican lawestablishes certain parameters protecting such marks when such have been duly registered in their country of origin. Accordingly, Article 151,Section V of Mexico’s Industrial Property Law (Ley de Propiedad Industrial) protects those foreign parties who have registered their mark inthe country where they reside (and not in Mexico) against the unauthorized registration of such marks by their agents, distributors,representatives or other users in Mexico. The Law provides that if a mark is registered in Mexico without authorization by one of suchrepresentatives, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Intelectual or IMPI) may, upon petition of theforeign trademark owner, declare the Mexican registration null, since it was registered in bad faith.