In accordance to the recent reforms implemented in the Industrial Property Law, the Mexican Opposition System for the trademark registration procedure has come into force on August 30, 2016.
This opposition procedure will not replace the substantive examination carried out by the Mexican Trademark Office during the prosecution of a trademark application, and said Authority would still have the final decision on whether to grant or deny the registration of trademarks. However, it allows any person to make a formal opposition for the registration of certain trademark based on the prohibitions of registration stated in articles 90 and 4th of the Industrial Property Law, and thus, providing the Mexican Trademark Office with further and relevant information which could motivate this Authority to issue final resolutions for the granting or denying of registrations on a more solid basis.
Following with the above, in view of the complexity of the Mexican Opposition System and its effect within the trademark registration procedure, the firm had designated a selected group of Intellectual Property lawyers guided by the Partners of this area, whom shall carry out the daily review of the trademarks handled by our law firm, as well as the consideration on submitting an opposition against the registration of a trademark application. This legal service will be supported by an electronic trademark surveillance software which, among other features, has two particular functions; enabling the exhaustive daily analysis of each of the trademarks we are handling in order to determine a possible opposition against the registration of a trademark application published for said purpose and, additionally, the prompt notification of an opposition received against the registration of a trademark application filed by our firm before the Mexican Trademark Office.
It is important to mention that the first Official Gazette is expected to be issued by the Mexican Trademark Office for the publication of the trademark applications that were filed on August 30, 2016, date on which the opposition system started. This publication will be issued no later than the next Tuesday, September 13, 2016.
The partners and attorneys of our Intellectual Property department are at your disposal for answering any questions you may have in respect to this new procedure.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
