The Ministry of Economy, through the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), authorized new geographical indications and famous trademarks.

In general, IMPI is making progress in strengthening industrial property and democratizing access to these rights, which, in turn, contributes to the economy by protecting innovation and the development of new products and services.

With regard to geographical indications, the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property reinforced figures such as Geographical Indications (GI) and Denominations of Origin (DO), which protect products linked to a geographical origin.

In the first half of 2022, the Declarations of Protection of four GIs and one DO were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation:

• Wood Carvings: Tonas y Nahuales, Artesanías de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca.
• Silk from Cajonos.
• Rugs from Teotitlán, Santa Ana and San Miguel del Valle.
• Cajeta from Celaya.
• Lacquer from Olinalá.

These protections have a great economic potential for the generation of welfare of the producing communities.

IMPI

Another protection figure that has been promoted is the famous trademark, which is a trademark known by the general public and recognizes its trajectory at a national level.

The declaration of famous trademark extends the protection of the goods or services of the company that obtains it.

Between September 2021 and July 2022, IMPI granted nine recognitions of this figure to companies, institutions and services such as the Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores, Banco Azteca, Italika, Grupo Elektra, Victoria, HOT SALE, Escuela Libre de Derecho, Sico and Lysol.

Functions

IMPI protects creators and entrepreneurs through the issuance of trademark registrations and patent titles; prevents and combats acts that infringe industrial property and disseminates the importance of protecting it.

Actions to protect the rights of creators and entrepreneurs included combating piracy and the violation of intellectual property rights.

This supports innovative companies that base their strategies and development on industrial property.

Since 2020, IMPI has been carrying out an exercise to measure the contribution of Industrial Property to the economy, based on the methodology developed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

In March 2022, IMPI calculated that the industries intensive in the use of industrial property rights participated with 49.59% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021, which represented an increase of 1.8% with respect to the measurement made in 2020 in the study Impact of the industries intensive in the use of IP rights in Mexico, prepared by the IP Key Latin America Program of EUIPO.