Mexican copyright law - MCI can look, but not touch

Amendments to Mexican copyright law look promising, though may create more problems than they solve, as Begoña Cancino explains.

The Mexican approach to enforcing copyright against counterfeiters has hitherto been characterised by minimal participation of the Mexican Copyright Institute (MCI). The institute’s participation is directly proportional to the slim resources granted to it.

For instance, procedural rules applicable to administrative proceedings of copyright infringement are embodied in the Mexican Industrial Property Law (instead of the Copyright Law) and consequently, those specific cases are prosecuted before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), which is currently the only federal authority empowered to prosecute and decide copyright infringements in a first administrative instance.

In other words, before the amendments, the MCI was only given the right to recognise the existence of copyright on behalf of those who ask for a specific declaration and comply with all the legal requirements. Now, it seems, the MCI will play an active role when it comes to inspections related to copyright infringement, even as its ability to intervene in disputes seems to be diluted.