Infringement Actions

The new Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property includes several changes regarding administrative infringements, with the following being the most relevant:

• In the infringement actions related to the commercialization of products or services, the "knowingly" requirement has been deleted. Traditionally, there has been a distinction between the infringements that could be brought against the manufacturers of products that violate an industrial property right and the merchants that sell them, with an additional requirement, consisting of having to demonstrate that the merchant's infringing activity was being carried out knowingly. However, the new Law has eliminated this requirement, thus giving the same treatment to manufacturers and merchants, which may cause some concern for retailers.