It is all about opportunities: opposing to trade marks in Mexico

From José Luis Alvarez, Mexican Trademark Agent at Mexican Consulting & Development, SC, the blog received a newsletter about the (no so) recent updates in Mexico.

Back in August 2016, the blog reported that at the end of the said month Mexico was to implement an opposition system in trade mark – the amendment to the law dated April, 2016. At that time, Mexico was one of the few countries which did not provide for trade mark opposition proceedings.

The Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial (IMPI) is the administrative authority legally authorized to conduct ex officio examinations of trade mark applications on absolute and relative grounds. In any case, Mexico was not bound to introduce opposition proceedings as a result of its accession to the Madrid System. However, the amendment would make the trade mark system more efficient and harmonizing trade mark system “with global trends and benefiting its users.”

The opposition proceeding while known and practiced in many jurisdictions, it's sometimes not clear what it really entails. Therefore, Jose Luis reports the following ‘good to know’ guidance:

“The amendment included in order to grant the opportunity to anyone who considers that an application violates the IPL´s provisions, to file an opposition within one month of the date of its publication in the Gazette. No extension of the one month opposition period is allowed. After that one month opposition period expires, a list of those applications that were opposed will be published in the Gazette within the following 10 business days.
It is important to mention that the opposition system has no binding effect on the Mexican Trademark Office’s (IMPI) conduct of the registration process and, in particular:
The opposition will not result in any suspension of the registration process;
Opposing an application does not grant the opposing party any status as an interested third party;
The opposition shall not automatically determine the outcome of the in-depth examination carried out by the IMPI; and
The IMPI may consider, in its analysis, the opposition and statements made in response by the applicant.”

And while we are in the topic of trade marks, The Nice Classification - the international classification of goods and services applied for the registration of marks, is now in its eleventh edition - entered into force on January 1, 2017.