The Safeguarding of Intellectual Property in Mexico

Background of the Safeguarding of Intellectual Property in Mexico

The first efforts made at the safeguarding of intellectual property in Mexico (IP) began in1832 with the “Law of Property Rights for Inventors”.  During that period, the mandate was put into effect as a measure to safeguard certain kinds of ideas and innovations.  It was implemented as a derivative of Spanish law.  In 1889, it was superseded was by the “Law of Manufacturing Trademarks.”  This statue was patterned after French codes for the protection of intellectual property and was enacted while Porfirio Diaz served as Mexico’s president.

In the 20^th century, the safeguarding of intellectual property in Mexico was heavily impacted by transnational accords and foreign laws such as the Brussels Review (1900), the Washington Review (1911), the Hague Review (1925), and the Convention of Paris (1934).  In addition to this, the Mexican Law of Industrial Property of 1943 was heavily affected by statutes implemented by France in order to protect intellectual property within its borders. This code was updated on several occasions and was utilized as the basis for the “Law of Inventions and Trademarks”, which the Mexican government implemented in 1976. The purpose of the law was to protect intellectual property in Mexico.  It was enforced until 1991 when the “New Law of Industrial Property” was codified.

Mexico’s “New Law of Industrial Property,” or as it is called in Spanish “Ley de Propiedad Industrial,” was updated in 1994 so that it conformed with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) standards.  Under the reworked law, “the author or the person who creates an invention, utility model or an industrial design has the right to exclusively exploit it for his benefit himself or by another duly authorized individual.”  In accord with the NAFTA agreements on the subject of the protection of intellectual property in Mexico, the United States, and Canada if one of the signatory countries is unable to give the minimum guarantees to an investor, that person or group can take their case to an arbitration court.  “The arbitration court will defend the interests of the investor, without taking into account the national legislation of the defendant country.”

In Mexico, the governmental organ with the legal mandate to enforce the laws that ensure the protection of intellectual property in Mexico is the “Instituto Mexicano de Propiedad Industrial,” or the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI).  The IMPI was formed by government action in 1993 to provide professional and technical support to the country’s Economics Ministry. It is charged with:

• Granting intellectual property protection in Mexico using patents, utility model registrations, and industrial designs;
• Preventing and combating acts that violate intellectual property rights and promote unfair competition;
• Promoting invention, innovation and the transfer of technologies in order to make the Mexican
• economy competitive on a global scale;
• Promoting international cooperation through the exchange of information with institutions responsible for protecting intellectual properties in other countries.

The safeguarding of industrial property in Mexico is executed in order to prevent any illegal usage of patents, utility models, and industrial designs.  Therefore, the Institute (IMPI) is governed by three characteristics of industrial property rights:

• Territoriality, which are the rights granted within the national territory and is independent of those granted in other countries;
• Temporality, which is the stipulated time during which the protected can be exploited commercially;
• Exclusivity, where the owner is the only one authorized to exploit commercially what he has protected.

How Intellectual Property in Mexico is Classified

In Mexico, IP is classified into two categories: Industrial Property (Inventions and registrations), and copyright (literary, musical, artistic and photographic works, among others).  Mexico’s Ministry of Economy, through the country’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has the jurisdiction to administer systems for the safeguarding of intellectual property in Mexico at the national level.

The items protected by the IMPI are:

• Utility model, which are those changes to existing inventions and innovations, tools and machinery to improve upon their performance;
• Patent, which is the product or process that proves to be new at the transnational level;
• Industrial Designs such as Industrial Model, Industrial Drawing, Brand, Commercial Notice, Commercial Name and Denomination of Origin.

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