On May 25 of this year, the Decree approving Mexico's accession to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, better known as the Madrid Protocol, was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
The announcement of the approval by the Senate for Mexico to adhere to the Madrid Protocol was made on April 25, the same steps that were followed by Colombia, which marks a step forward in the field of Intellectual Property in Latin America.
For Mexican businessmen who wish to export or have presence or protection of their trademarks in other countries, the system will offer them facilities to register their trademarks in those jurisdictions corresponding to the Member States. The advantage of the homologated registration translates into cost and time efficiency, since only local assistance is required for the simplified procedure without having to hire a lawyer to carry out the "normal" registration processes.
Another important advantage is that in the event of changes in the ownership of trademarks filed with IMPI, under the Protocol it will be possible to reproduce these changes through a simple procedure in all other jurisdictions. Whether it is a change of owner, change of address, registration of a license of use, among others. In these cases it will be sufficient to prove it in the international file for it to have effects in the national registers, which clearly reduces costs and time.
However, it is important to point out that it is possible that Mexico may receive a significant volume of applications for the registration of trademarks, which may cause delays in the ordinary registration procedures before the IMPI.
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