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20 May 2018TrademarksEmilio Albarran and Victor Adames

Time to step up for better protection

In light of the eventual execution of several treaties such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the ongoing revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the possibility of making various changes to the Mexican IP Law to improve the industrial property system has been discussed recently.

One of the most important topics among the several reforms proposed by Mexican legislators contemplates the inclusion of non-traditional trademarks, which would definitively allow IP owners to obtain a more suitable and better protection for their IP rights. Times are rapidly changing and so is technology, and goods producers and service providers have adapted the ways to approach to their consumers. However, the law has not evolved at the same pace in order to keep IP owners protected.

There are now new ways to convince potential purchasers to choose a company’s goods or services instead of the goods or services offered by its competitors. We observe every day that words, logos and 3D marks are no longer sufficient.

Current situation in Mexico

The Mexican IP Law recognises protection as trademarks for words, logos, 3D marks, or a combination of them, as they are “visible signs that distinguish products or services from others of the same type or category in the market”.

The range of protection for IP rights regarding trademarks could extend its limits to include non-traditional marks such as product designs or configurations (also known as trade dress), colours, sounds, tastes, among others.

Many jurisdictions around the world are increasingly providing some form of protection to non-traditional marks.

Particularly, in Mexico, some legislators have recently promoted the inclusion of sounds, smells and trade dress within the Mexican IP Law through a bill filed before the congress in January this year.

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