IMPI against the stopwatch: the new reform of the federal law for the protection of industrial property (LFPPI) comes into force

IMPI against the stopwatch: the new reform of the federal law for the protection of industrial property (LFPPI) enters into force.

Mexico welcomes a series of adjustments to its industrial property system. With the publication in the Official Journal of the Federation of the decree reforming the LFPPI, the State is seeking to adapt the regulatory framework, with the aim of creating a Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) with a more agile capacity to protect and defend intellectual property in a context where technological transformation is taking place at a rapid pace. In addition, this reform recognises new forms of protection and formalises a series of issues that were already happening in practice.

One of the most outstanding points of this reform responds to one of the areas of opportunity that is often commented on within the profession: the delay of the IMPI in ruling on various procedures related to patents, utility models, industrial designs, layout-designs and distinctive signs. Thus, the LFPPI now constrains the Authority to comply with the following response times.

It is true that we already had an IMPI Agreement establishing its own response times, although in reality it was limited to establishing a deadline for a first response to procedures which, for the most part, are subject to subsequent phases. The elevation of this issue to the LFPPI and linking it to later stages of the different procedures represents a challenge to IMPI's operational capacity and, to tell the truth, there is a certain scepticism within the profession with respect to its compliance.

Against this backdrop, the reform also puts IMPI's operational capacity to the test by opening the doors to the Specialised Technical Committee, a body that will be appointed by the Governing Board, whose main function is to ensure that procedures pending final resolution are dealt with by means of a procedure initiated at the request of a party that does not constitute an instance.

The new forms of protection introduced into our legislation with this reform are the provisional patent application and three new types of non-traditional trademarks, a trademark grouping that was legally recognised in 2018 with the latest reform of the repealed Industrial Property Law.

On the one hand, the provisional patent application now allows inventors to obtain a priority date on their creations under development by simply identifying the name of the inventors, their successor in title and a description of the invention, and they must file their formal application within twelve months in order to preserve the legal date granted with the provisional application.

On the other hand, position, multimedia and motion marks become official in our jurisdiction, expanding the creative barriers to distinguish products and services in Mexico. Thus, the insight shown by a sign by its location, the combination of audio and video elements, or a scrolling sequence, can now be subject to exclusive use as a trademark.

It will only be a matter of time before the figures reveal whether provisional patent applications really represent a mechanism to enhance innovation or just a bureaucratic burden. The same goes for the new trademark modalities, will they be received with the same popularity as the trade dress 8 years ago?

In terms of intellectual property infringement, the reform introduces amendments that seek to update the sanctioning regime against the commercial strategy known as parasitic advertising or ambush marketing, a situation that was already anticipated with the upcoming World Cup football tournament in our country. This practice is typified as the false appearance of an official sponsorship relationship between a brand and an event of massive concentration. Likewise, the possibility of artificial intelligence being a motive for the infringement of rights over intangible assets is also considered, in such a way that the use of this type of tool will not exclude liability for those who use it at the expense of the intellectual property of third parties.

In this context, the IMPI is expressly empowered to issue rules that allow for the initiation, substantiation and resolution of infringement proceedings through electronic means of communication. More than a novel aspect, it seems to be the particularisation of the power provided for in section XVII, article 5 of the LFPPI, which should be a sufficient basis not only for the facilitation of infringement proceedings, but also to extend it to contentious proceedings of revocation, cancellation and nullity, in favour of the integral system of intellectual property protection.

In conclusion, the success of this ambitious re-engineering will depend on whether the Institute manages to balance administrative speed with the legal certainty that the sector demands, preventing the new Specialised Technical Committee from becoming an additional management burden for the individual. Faced with the challenges of navigating new figures such as provisional patent applications, the criminalisation of ambush marketing and liability for the use of artificial intelligence, it is essential to have strategic legal support to protect your intangible assets.

At ECIJA Mexico, we put our global experience and local vision at your service to guide you through this new legal scenario; we invite you to come to our offices to make your consultations on the matter and ensure that your IP strategy has the necessary strength to face the challenges of 2026.

Ricardo Cortés and Miguel Ángel Carpio

ECIJA Mexico

rcortes@ecija.com | macarpio@ecija.com

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Intellectual Property, ECIJA México | info@ecija.com | T +52 55 5662 6840