Mexico jurisdiction report: providing evidence in invalidity actions

This invalidity action was commonly used to promote the cancellation of a trademark registration in which the date of first use before its filling date was stated. This constituted a litigation procedure in which the burden of proof was on the contested trademark registration’s owner, who had to prove the effective use of the trademark since the date of first use declared in its application.

The burden of proof originally fell mainly on the defendant, as the plaintiff was not in a position to prove first use of the trademark registration. Instead, the defendant was the party that should have had in its possession the necessary evidence to demonstrate the use of its trademark on the date declared as first use.