Diagnostic

Trademark registration with IMPI: what decides whether your brand is really yours

Anyone may use a trademark; holding it exclusively is another matter. Only registration grants that right, and filing errors can cost you the trademark or years of proceedings.

LEXURE Industrial and Intellectual Property Practice Team 7 min read Regulatory status verified in 2026

Many com­pa­nies invest in a name, a logo and market posi­tion­ing before asking whether the trade­mark belongs to them. In Mexico, using a trade­mark does not give you the right to stop others from using it: that right arises only upon reg­is­tra­tion, and who­ever files first usu­ally has the advan­tage.

What the law requires

The exclu­sive right. Anyone may use trade­marks in indus­try, com­merce or ser­vices, but the right to their exclu­sive use is obtained by reg­is­ter­ing them with the Mex­i­can Insti­tute of Indus­trial Prop­erty (IMPI), under Arti­cle 170 of the Fed­eral Law for the Pro­tec­tion of Indus­trial Prop­erty (Ley Fed­eral de Pro­tec­ción a la Propiedad Indus­trial). For that reason, a trade­mark that has been used for years with­out reg­is­tra­tion may end up reg­is­tered by a third party if its user does not act in time.

What can be reg­is­tered. Words, let­ters, num­bers, fig­ures, color com­bi­na­tions, holo­grams, three-dimen­sional shapes, trade names, sounds, scents, the com­bi­na­tion of trade dress ele­ments and, since the amend­ment pub­lished on April 3, 2026, posi­tion, motion and mul­ti­me­dia marks (Arti­cle 172).

What cannot be reg­is­tered. Arti­cle 173 lists the pro­hi­bi­tions. The ones applied most often are generic or com­monly used names, signs lack­ing dis­tinc­tive­ness, signs con­fus­ingly sim­i­lar to an ear­lier trade­mark reg­is­tered or pend­ing for iden­ti­cal or sim­i­lar goods or ser­vices, and signs filed in bad faith to obtain an undue advan­tage to the detri­ment of the legit­i­mate owner.

The pro­ce­dure and its dead­lines. IMPI pub­lishes the appli­ca­tion in its Gazette (Gaceta) within ten days after receipt, and any inter­ested party has one non-extend­able month to file an oppo­si­tion (Arti­cle 221). Once that period ends, IMPI con­ducts the formal and sub­stan­tive exam­i­na­tion; if it finds obsta­cles, it gives the appli­cant a period to respond (Arti­cles 225 and 226). If there were no office actions or oppo­si­tions, the appli­ca­tion must be decided within a max­i­mum of five months from filing (Arti­cle 229 Bis), and if IMPI misses that dead­line, the appli­cant may resort to the manda­tory res­o­lu­tion pro­ce­dure (Arti­cle 327 Bis).

Cor­po­rate name and domain name. Obtain­ing a cor­po­rate name from the Min­istry of Econ­omy (Sec­re­taría de Economía) or reg­is­ter­ing a domain name does not grant an exclu­sive right over the sign as a trade­mark. In addi­tion, using a third party’s reg­is­tered trade­mark with­out con­sent, or one con­fus­ingly sim­i­lar to it, as part of a cor­po­rate name, trade name or domain name is an infringe­ment (Arti­cle 386, sec­tions XVIII and XX), and it may force a com­pany to change its own cor­po­rate name.

Term and what it takes to main­tain it. A reg­is­tra­tion lasts ten years from grant and may be renewed for equal peri­ods (Arti­cle 178). To keep it, the owner must declare real and effec­tive use of the trade­mark within the three months fol­low­ing the third anniver­sary of the reg­is­tra­tion (Arti­cle 233) and again upon renewal (Arti­cle 237). The legend “Marca Reg­istrada,” the abbre­vi­a­tion “M.R.” or the ® symbol may be used only for the goods or ser­vices actu­ally reg­is­tered (Arti­cle 236).

What to do and by when

  1. Before launch­ing a trade­mark, run a clear­ance search in IMPI’s data­bases for the class of goods or ser­vices in which you will oper­ate.
  2. File the appli­ca­tion as soon as pos­si­ble, prefer­ably before announc­ing the trade­mark pub­licly.
  3. Define pre­cisely the goods or ser­vices cov­ered by the appli­ca­tion, because pro­tec­tion is lim­ited to them.
  4. Reg­is­ter in the name of the com­pany that will exploit the trade­mark, not in the name of a share­holder or an agency.
  5. Con­sider reg­is­ter­ing the word mark and the design sep­a­rately, and eval­u­ate the new types of marks if your brand iden­tity includes motion or sound.
  6. Mon­i­tor IMPI’s Gazette so you can oppose, within the one-month period, third-party appli­ca­tions that resem­ble yours.
  7. Record in a cal­en­dar the dec­la­ra­tion of use and renewal dates for each reg­is­tra­tion.
  8. Before choos­ing a cor­po­rate name or a domain name, verify that it does not match a third party’s reg­is­tered trade­mark.

Recommendations to mitigate risk

With­out reg­is­tra­tion, the com­pany cannot stop a com­peti­tor from using an iden­ti­cal sign, and a third party may reg­is­ter it and then bring a claim against the com­pany, which would have to change the trade­mark it had been using or nego­ti­ate from a weak posi­tion. If you use a trade­mark con­fus­ingly sim­i­lar to another one reg­is­tered for sim­i­lar goods or ser­vices, you commit an admin­is­tra­tive infringe­ment (Arti­cle 386, sec­tion XVII), pun­ish­able by a fine of up to 250,000 times the Unit of Mea­sure­ment and Update (UMA), that is, MXN 29,327,500, for each act, an addi­tional fine of up to 1,000 UMA (MXN 117,310) for each day the con­duct con­tin­ues, and clo­sure (Arti­cle 388). If you acted know­ingly, the fine is dou­bled (Arti­cle 392). Stat­ing that a prod­uct is pro­tected by a reg­is­tered trade­mark when it is not is also an infringe­ment (Arti­cle 386, sec­tion XVI).

IMPI may also order pro­vi­sional mea­sures, such as the with­drawal of prod­ucts or the sus­pen­sion of con­tent in dig­i­tal media (Arti­cle 344), which halt oper­a­tions while the merits are decided.

Self-assessment

Answer yes or no about your own com­pany.

  1. Are your main trade­marks reg­is­tered with IMPI?
  2. Are they reg­is­tered in the name of the com­pany that exploits them?
  3. Did you run a clear­ance search before launch­ing your latest trade­mark?
  4. Do the reg­is­tered goods or ser­vices match what you sell today?
  5. Do you use the ® symbol only on goods or ser­vices that are actu­ally reg­is­tered?
  6. Do you keep a cal­en­dar with the dec­la­ra­tion of use and renewal dates?
  7. Does some­one mon­i­tor the Gazette to detect appli­ca­tions sim­i­lar to yours?

How we approach it at LEXURE

We audit your com­pany’s trade­mark port­fo­lio: what is reg­is­tered, in whose name, for which goods and ser­vices and with which crit­i­cal dates. We run clear­ance searches, file and follow up on appli­ca­tions, and leave in place a main­te­nance cal­en­dar with alerts so that no reg­is­tra­tion lapses through over­sight.

If your com­pany uses trade­marks it has not reg­is­tered, sched­ule a diag­nos­tic meet­ing with us before some­one else reg­is­ters them.

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Legal basis

  1. Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, last amended DOF April 3, 2026, Articles 170, 172, 173, 178, 221, 225, 226, 229 Bis, 233, 236, 237, 327 Bis, 344, 386, sections XVI, XVII, XVIII and XX, 388 and 392. Current text (opens in a new tab)
  2. Value of the Unit of Measurement and Update 2026, INEGI. Official publication (opens in a new tab)

This note is for information only and describes the law in force on the verification date. It is not legal advice on a specific matter. It is a translation of the Spanish original: Mexican law is published in Spanish, and the official Spanish texts prevail.

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