Protecting And Enforcing Design Rights

Legal framework

The Mexican Industrial Property Law 1991 (modified in 1994, 1997 and 2018) regulates industrial designs in Mexico. The protection granted to an industrial design application is a registration valid for five years from the filing date of the application, which can be renewed four times up to a maximum 25 years' protection. The Industrial Property Law regulations provide prosecution rules for industrial designs in Mexico. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) is the government office in charge of evaluating and granting industrial design registrations and a decentralised body of the Ministry of Economy.

Mexico is part of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Locarno Agreement that establishes an International Classification for Industrial Designs. On 6 September 2019 the Mexican Senate approved the accession of Mexico to the Geneva Act 1999 of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration