BY VARINIA CALLEROS Mexican intellectual property law does not provide protection to trade marks that are not inherently distinctive but have attained secondary meaning through use. This means that companies cannot obtain exclusive rights in Mexico over descriptive or generic words, surnames, geographic names or isolated colours and isolated letters, even through continuous and exclusive use […]
BY GEORGINA FLORES MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INTERNATIONAL BRIEFINGS, SEPTEMBER 2008 In recent months, the Mexican Patent Office (IMPI) has changed its practice regarding the time limit to file divisional applications. In cases where divisional applications are filed as a result of a requirement regarding lack of unity of the invention, they must be filed simultaneously with […]
BY ERWIN CRUZ SALDÍVAR Last April, the Mexican Congress approved amendments to the IP Law related mainly to patent practice. These amendments are pending ratification by the Presidential Office and publication in the Official Gazette. The original project of reform promoted by the generic medicines industry aimed, among other issues, to insert two separate pre- and […]
BY OSVALDO AMARAL MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, INTERNATIONAL BRIEFINGS, OCTOBER 2007 When it comes to prosecuting a patent application before the Mexican Patent Office, the applicant should remember that the Office does not undertake a completely independent substantive examination of patent applications. Mexico’s Law of Industrial Property contemplates that the Office may accept or require the findings […]