Mexico is a member of most international organizations regulating the protection of intellectual property rights. The Mexican government strengthened its domestic legal framework for protecting intellectual property with the promulgation of a new industrial property law in 1991 and a new copyright law in 1997. These laws extend product patent protection to nearly all processes and products, including chemicals, alloys, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and plant varieties; extend the term of patent protection from 14 to 20 years from the date of filing; and substantially increase protection for several types of copyrighted materials. Trademarks are granted for 10-year renewable periods. A wide range of criminal, administrative and civil remedies are available for intellectual property rights violations.

　　In addition, the Mexican government is doing all efforts to establish an effective IPR protection system. It aims to meet the requirements of "Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) negotiations, and it is also a part of the national development strategy, which mentioned in the "Mexican National Development Plan" (PND).

Patent

　　Requirements for patent are novelty, inventive activity and industrial application. An invention is considered novel when it is not state of the art. An inventive activity is a creative process providing results that cannot be obtained from the state of the art methods by a person skilled in the art.

　　Excluded from patent protection are, among others, theoretical or scientific principles, discoveries of natural phenomenon, schemes, plans, rules and methods for carrying out mental acts, games or businesses, methods of surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic treatment and computer programs.

　　In Mexico, the time of invention is irrelevant to determining priority. The person who first files the patent application is considered as the inventor and will be the owner of the future patent.

　　Patents may be licensed on privately negotiated terms. The Mexican 1991 Law for the Promotion and Protection of Industrial Property provides for patenting of a broad range of inventions, including chemicals, plant varieties and biotechnological processes.

　　The granting for patent in Mexico is 20 years.

Trademark

　　The exclusive right that a trademark provides to its owner starts when registration is granted by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property. Trademarks have strong protection within all Mexican territory. Trade and service marks may be registered for a period of 10 years and may be renewed every 10 years. Only visible signs may be registered. If a trademark is similar to another to an extent that can cause confusion, the trademark may not be registered.

　　The followings constitute trademark infringements:

　　1. to use a trademark confusingly similar to another registered trademark, and to cover the same or similar products or services as those protected by the registered trademark;

　　2. to use, without the consent of the holder, a registered trademark or trademark confusingly similar to an element of a trade name or a firm or corporate name;

　　3. the offer for sale or the placement into circulation of products equal or similar to those to which a registered trademark is applied, knowing that the trademark was used on them without the consent of its holder.

　　On November 19, 2012, Mexico submitted to WIPO the formal documents concerning its access to the Madrid Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. The Agreement came into effect in Mexico on February 19, 2013, making Mexico the third Latin-American member state of the Madrid System. The accession will not only help those Mexican enterprises wanting to explore the international market, but also help WIPO in making the Madrid System a truly international system with global coverage.

Copyright

　　Copyrights in Mexico are protected by the Mexican Copyright Act. This law was enacted in 1984 and was amended in 1991 to include computer programs. According to the Mexican Copyright Law, the following works are able to obtain protection as copyrights:

　　Literary works, musical works, dramatic works, dance performances or drawings, sculptures or plastic works, cartoons, architectonic works, cinematographic works, audiovisual works, radio and TV programs, computer software (data bases are included, but software created to produce harmful effects to other software or hardware is excluded from copyright protection), and photographic works of compilation, provided they constitute intellectual creations. As mentioned, databases are also copyrightable as compilations; to the extent selection and arrangement of their data constitute intellectual creations.

　　The Copyright Law provides that, only those works of original creation and capable of being disseminated or reproduced by any means will be subject to registration before the Copyright National Institute as protection is obtained since the artistic or literary work is fixed in tangible means. Nevertheless, copyrights are protected without necessarily having a deposit or registration; however, registration is advisable to have evidentiary elements to support the enforcement action in litigation cases.

　　The Mexican Copyright Law was amended again in 2003 and such amended law came into effect from July 24, 2003. This amendment extended the normal term for the economic benefits of copyright protection from the life of the author plus 75 years to the life of the author plus 100 years. Also, the rights of the author in an original work to control the exploitation of a derivative work have been improved. In Mexico, the enforcement of intellectual property rights is still in the development stage. There have been a few high profile cases of enforcement involving unauthorized duplications.

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