Some of our clients have been asking for our assessment in connection with information they have received from certain Mexican colleagues concerning the declaration of actual and effective use (DOU) which will be required as from August 10, 2018 for registered trademarks in Mexico.

Such colleagues are absurdly urging trademark owners to file the DOU for trademarks which registration was granted on May 10, 2015 onwards. This date is completely non-sense as the new provision of the Mexican IP Law establishing the filing of the DOU will apply only to trademark registrations that will be granted as from August 10, 2018. For those registrations the DOU must be filed within the three months following the third anniversary of the trademark registration as counted from the date of grant. For example, for a registration that will be granted on August 11, 2018 the DOU must be filed anytime between August 11, 2021 and November 11, 2021.

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