New office of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) in Baja California

By Adina Moloman

Source: IMPI, US Department of State, SE

Baja California is open to foreign direct investment (FDI) in most economic sectors and has consistently been one of the largest recipients of FDI among other Mexico Manufacturing regions or any other global regions from emerging markets.

In order to compete Baja California with its Maquiladora Sector, is  in a constant looking and improving infrastructure, that’s why recently in a last month reunion between IMPI (The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property) and SEDECO officials , it was announced the opening of a new IMPI office in Baja California.

Currently, the IMPI Office in Jalisco has jurisdiction over the state of Baja California, where all the applications or submissions of any kind of patent[1], registry of a trademark, publication, etc., from the entrepreneur sector of Baja California are processed.

The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) administers Mexico’s trademark and patent registries and is responsible for handling administrative cases of IPR infringement and counts with four regional offices to submit documentation.[2] Applications or submissions must be presented to the Institute proper or at the Ministry delegations.

Considering that Mexico is an important destination of US FDI investment, the U.S. Government, constantly work with its Mexican counterparts to improve the business climate for owners of intellectual property.

IMPI protects the property rights of: licenses and trademarks; inventions and innovations through the registration of licenses, utility models, industrial designs and industrial secrets; the creation of distinctive signs such as: brands, labels and commercial names as the denominations of origin.

Mexico has an international presence in this area by signing the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the NAFTA, and the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the Patent Cooperation Treaty in Geneva, Switzerland. This last signed treaty in 1994, allows for simplified patent registration procedure when applying for patents in more than one country at the same time, but to avoid any confusion among foreign investors, it is necessary to register any patent or trademark in Mexico. Considering that the operations of a foreign company generates a patent or a trademark, a prior registration in the country of origins does not guarantee its exclusivity and proper use in Mexico, but serves  as support for the authenticity of any claim of the foreign company.