Mexico on the path to modernization with the amendment and addition to the Industrial Property Law

With the target to fulfill some of the standards pointed out in several International Treaties linked to the Intellectual Property matter, mainly in its Industrial Property branch, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mexico (FTA EU-MX), the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications, The Hague Convention, The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, among others our country has made some adjustments to the Industrial Property Rights Law, some of these adjustments  will allow encouraging innovation, domestic and international trading and industry modernization.

Some of the most important amendments and additions are:

 

On Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications:

The inclusion, protection, and regulation of Geographical Indications as well as Appellation of Origin strengthening, with the purpose to enter into new international markets, increase added value and therefore the price, the acknowledge, the prestige, and the Mexican origin traditional products’ quality produced by manufacturers, traders, regional or local exporters, natural persons, legal entities, manufacturers or producers chambers or associations, Federal Government’s departments or entities;

Seeks to eradicate the unfair competition, products piracy through penalties and classifying of certain actions;

Regulation and, common proceedings rollout, to process the declaration and protection request and authorization to use both the Appellation of Origin as well as the Geographical Indications;

Likewise, the rules establishment for the AO and GI acknowledge, abroad and in the national territory.

 

On Industrial Design matter:

The designers’ protection as industrial designers creators.

The time extension on their rights’ expiration date

The monitoring and transparency in relation to the requests’ publishing and other procedures.

 

On Invention Patents and Utility Models topic:

The modifications made to the procedures to grant invention patents and utility models, whose purpose is to reduce procedures’ deadlines and give greater agility, certainty, and transparency.

 

We hope these modifications to the Law and the ones that are being discussed work to adequately blend up our legal frame with the economic, political, social and industrial, domestic as well as international, reality that we face, bringing along stability, welfare, and progress.