Reviewed 2 November 2026.
IP due diligence in Mexico confirms four things about each right a deal depends on: that the target holds it in its own name, that it is in force, that every transfer, license and lien affecting it is recorded, and that no one holds a better claim. Trademarks, patents, utility models and industrial designs are recorded at the Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial (IMPI, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property). Copyright, including software, can be registered at the Instituto Nacional del Derecho de Autor (INDAUTOR, the National Copyright Institute), though registration is optional. Domain names sit with the .MX registry, and trade secrets in no register at all.
One rule drives most of the work. Article 170 of the Ley Federal de Protección a la Propiedad Industrial (LFPPI, the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property) lets anyone use a mark but gives the exclusive right to whoever registers it with IMPI. A US or UK registration confers no exclusive right in Mexico, and the first to file in Mexico is not always the brand owner. This is the IP strand of due diligence in Mexico, and it starts with the registers.
The registers show who holds title and what has been filed. They do not show whether a mark is used, who sells goods under it, or whether a former distributor has traded on it for years, and the law makes those facts decisive.
The law as amended in 2025 and 2026
The LFPPI was published on 1 July 2020, and its consolidated text carries a last reform of 3 April 2026. That decree, on technology transfer and simpler patent and registration procedures, amended a large part of the law and took effect the day after publication, according to the Supreme Court's digest of that day's Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF, the Federal Official Gazette).
It added a claim of title against a patent or registration granted to someone not entitled to it (Article 40 Bis), a provisional patent application (Article 105 Bis), a bar on recording a transfer while an earlier lien stands (Article 139) and a duty to record a trademark holder's change of name or legal form (Article 257 Bis).
A new Reglamento (regulation) of the LFPPI was published on 28 April 2026 and, per the digest of that evening edition, took effect 60 business days later and abrogated the 1994 regulation. The 14 November 2025 decree only changed Articles 3 and 400 to refer to the new Código Nacional de Procedimientos Civiles y Familiares (National Code of Civil and Family Procedure), and the 15 January 2026 decree added gender-equality duties to Articles 2 and 5. Neither changes what a buyer checks.
Trademarks: the first to file holds the right
Because registration creates the right, the first check is whether the target is the holder of every registration and application it relies on, and not a founder, an agency, a local distributor or a group company outside the deal. A mark that a Mexican distributor filed years ago to protect the brand stands in the distributor's name, with the exclusive right that comes with it, until it is transferred or annulled.
The brand owner has two routes against such a filing. IMPI publishes each application in the Gaceta de la Propiedad Industrial (the Industrial Property Gazette) within ten days of receipt, and any interested person has one non-extendable month from publication to oppose it (Article 221). After registration, Article 258, fraction V, provides for nullity where an agent, legal representative, user or distributor of the owner of a mark registered abroad, or anyone with a direct or indirect relationship with that owner, obtains the mark or a confusingly similar one in its own name without the owner's express consent.
Unregistered local use also counts. Article 175, fraction I, addresses a third party who in good faith used the same or a confusingly similar mark in Mexico for the same or similar goods or services, without interruption, from before the filing date or the declared first-use date. That user may apply for the mark within five years after the registration was published, once it has obtained a declaration that the registration is null. A registration is also open to nullity if its holder cannot prove the first-use date it declared (Article 258, fraction III).
Keeping a trademark alive: term, renewal and declaration of use
A registration lasts ten years and is renewable for periods of the same length (Article 178). IMPI's guidance on renewal explains that the ten years run from grant for applications filed after 5 November 2020, when the LFPPI's text came into force, and from filing for earlier ones. Article 178 also requires a sworn statement at filing and renewal that the goods or services offered are free of deception or bad faith.
Renewal is filed in the six months before expiry, and IMPI processes renewals filed in the six months after (Article 237). The owner must declare use with the renewal, and if it does not, IMPI gives two months to cure before the registration lapses by operation of law.
Between renewals sits the declaración de uso real y efectivo (declaration of real and effective use). Under Article 233 the owner files it in the three months after the third anniversary of grant, listing the specific goods or services on which the mark is used. Protection then continues only for the goods or services declared, and a registration with no declaration lapses by operation of law. IMPI applies the requirement to registrations granted from 10 August 2018, and its notice to Madrid Protocol users, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on 20 December 2024, applies the same window to international registrations designating Mexico. Older registrations declare use when they come up for renewal.
This is where a broad registration narrows, so the buyer reads the declaration, not the certificate, to know what is still protected. Use must be in Mexico, as registered or with changes that do not alter the mark's distinctive character (Article 233). Article 235 also allows caducidad (lapse) of a registration, in whole or for the goods not in use, after three consecutive years without use, unless the owner or a licensee used the mark in the three years before the request or circumstances beyond the owner's control prevented use. Use by a licensee counts as use by the owner (Article 244).
Searching IMPI's records
IMPI's register is public, except for confidential applications (Article 22), and the files of patents and registrations in force are open to consultation unless they contain trade secrets or confidential information (Article 23). Under Article 34 of the 2026 regulation anyone may obtain copies of documents in the files of granted rights, on payment of the fee. Unpublished patent, utility model and design applications can be seen only by the applicant and its representatives (Article 24).
Marcanet is IMPI's trademark database. IMPI's technical report to WIPO for 2024 states that information on registered and pending marks, trade notices and trade names is digitized and available there. The same report says MARCia, the image and word search IMPI ran from 2020, operated until August 2024, so guides that point to MARCia are out of date. The Gazette, where IMPI notifies its resolutions (Article 19), is published through the Sistema de Información de la Gaceta de la Propiedad Industrial (SIGA, the Industrial Property Gazette Information System). IMPI's patent report describes SIGA as free to consult and ViDoc, its document viewer, as holding more than 21 million public files.
The search runs both ways. One check works through the target's own schedule, file by file. The other looks for marks held by others that are identical or confusingly similar to the target's, and for filings by its distributors and agents. The second check finds what the schedule leaves out.
Patents, utility models and industrial designs
A patent runs for a 20-year term that Article 53 calls non-extendable, counted from the recognized filing date and subject to annual fees. A utility model lasts 15 years from filing, also subject to annuities (Article 62). A design registration lasts five years from filing, renewable for five-year periods up to 25 years (Article 78), with renewal in the six months before expiry or within the grace period Article 160 sets (Article 79). Grant requires proof of payment of the title fee and that year's annuity (Article 110), so the payment record in each file comes first. For pharmaceutical targets, Article 136 Bis now allows a supplementary certificate of up to five years for unreasonable delay in a sanitary registration.
Article 105 Bis lets an inventor file a provisional application to secure a filing date, with a non-extendable 12 months to file the full application. IMPI neither publishes nor examines the provisional filing, which is treated as declined if the full application is late, so a target that relies on one should produce it with proof of the follow-on filing. Ordinary applications are published once formal examination is passed and 18 months have run from filing or priority (Article 107). Validity and freedom to operate remain questions for patent counsel.
Transfers, licenses, franchises and liens
For patents and other registrations, a transfer or lien produces effects against third parties only once recorded with IMPI (Article 137). For trademarks, Article 250 requires the same recordal, and Article 257 Bis extends it to a change of the holder's name or legal form. A target that bought marks in an earlier deal, or changed its corporate name, may hold title under a contract IMPI's file does not reflect. The chain of title is rebuilt from the file, the agreements behind it and each holder's corporate records, including the powers of whoever signed, as covered in our guide on how to verify a Mexican company.
Liens can stop a closing. For patents, utility models and designs, IMPI now dismisses outright an application to record a transfer while an earlier recorded lien remains uncancelled, though a lien does not block recording a license (Article 139). The lien has to be cancelled at IMPI first.
Either the holder or the licensee may record a patent license (Article 138). A franchise exists where a written trademark license comes with technical knowledge or assistance so that the franchisee operates under the franchisor's methods (Article 245). Under Article 21 of the regulation, the copy filed to record a license or franchise may omit royalties, confidential information on distribution and marketing, and technical annexes, so IMPI's file confirms that a license exists but not its economics. Unless the license says otherwise, a licensee may sue to protect the mark as if it were the holder (Article 243).
Article 253 treats an owner's identical or confusingly similar marks for the same or similar goods as linked for transfer purposes, and Article 254 lets the owner ask IMPI to dissolve the link. A carve-out that leaves related marks with the seller has to deal with that first.
Trade secrets: no register, only contracts and controls
Article 163 defines a secreto industrial (trade secret) as industrial or commercial information kept confidential by the person with legal control of it, which gives a competitive or economic advantage, and for which that person has adopted sufficient means or systems to preserve its confidentiality and restrict access. That last element is the one a buyer can test. There is nothing to search at IMPI. The evidence is in the target's confidentiality agreements with employees, contractors and licensees, and in its access controls.
Article 165 lets the holder transmit a trade secret or authorize its use and binds the authorized user not to disclose it, and franchisees owe confidentiality during and after the contract (Article 248). A target that cannot show who received its know-how, and on what terms, may struggle to show that it still holds a trade secret.
Employees, contractors and software
The right to a patent or registration belongs to the inventor or designer, jointly where several worked together, and can be transferred (Article 38). For inventions, utility models and designs made by people in an employment relationship in Mexico, Article 40 applies the Ley Federal del Trabajo (LFT, the Federal Labor Law). Article 40 Bis lets the person entitled under either article claim title to a patent or registration granted to someone else, at any time while it is in force. Each named inventor should match an employment contract or a signed assignment.
The Ley Federal del Derecho de Autor (LFDA, the Federal Copyright Law) treats creators differently. Unless agreed otherwise, whoever commissions a work holds the economic rights in it (Article 83). A work made by an employee under a written employment contract is presumed to belong to employer and employee in equal shares, and without a written contract to the employee (Article 84). Software is the exception: economic rights in a program and its documentation created by employees in their duties or on the employer's instructions belong to the employer unless agreed otherwise (Article 103). Since a 14 May 2026 reform, Article 102 protects computer programs, including artificial intelligence programs, on the same terms as literary works.
A transfer of economic rights, or a license, must be in writing or is null (Article 30). Without an express term a transfer is deemed to last five years, and more than 15 years is allowed only exceptionally (Article 33), though software assignments have no time limit (Article 103). The logo, packaging and website a target treats as its own may be half owned by the employee who designed them, kept by an agency whose contract reserved the rights, or held under a transfer that ran out after five years. The paperwork decides, and a trademark registration does not settle who owns the copyright in the artwork.
What an INDAUTOR registration proves
Copyright arises when a work is fixed in a material medium, with no registration or formality (Article 5 LFDA). Under Article 59 of the LFDA regulation, entries in the Registro Público del Derecho de Autor (Public Copyright Registry) are declaratory: they create a legal presumption of ownership in favor of the registrant but do not create rights. Transfers of economic rights must be recorded there to have effect against third parties (Article 32 LFDA), and the registry annotates provisionally when notified of a lawsuit or administrative proceeding (Article 66 of the regulation). The buyer asks for the target's certificates and checks the registrant and recorded transfers against its account of how it acquired each work.
Domain names under .mx
The .mx domain is administered by Registry .MX, a division of NIC México, whose WHOIS service can be consulted publicly through its website. The buyer checks that the target, and not a web agency, an employee or a distributor, is the registrant of each domain it uses. Disputes between domain names and trademarks go under the registry's dispute resolution policy (LDRP), for which it names the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center as an authorized provider.
Disputes and pending actions
IMPI is registrar and first-instance authority at once. Under Article 5 it conducts nullity, lapse and cancellation proceedings and claims of title, investigates alleged infringements, orders inspection visits and provisional measures, and can award damages to the affected holder in its administrative declaration proceedings. Suits against IMPI resolutions are heard by the Sala Especializada en Materia de Propiedad Intelectual (Specialized Intellectual Property Chamber) of the Tribunal Federal de Justicia Administrativa (TFJA, the Federal Court of Administrative Justice) in Mexico City, as edicts it issued for the DOF in 2026 show.
Outsiders cannot open IMPI's dispute files. Under Article 32 of the 2026 regulation, only the parties and their representatives may consult the files of administrative declaration proceedings. The buyer asks the target for a schedule of every IMPI proceeding it is party to, including actions brought by its licensees, with copies of the files, and confirms the court position through a litigation search.
What the records cannot show
The registers record claims, and whether the claims hold depends on facts no register contains. Article 121 of the 2026 regulation treats a mark as in use when the goods or services are on the market or available in Mexico under it, in the quantity and manner that commercial custom dictates, and accepts proof through a relevant, non-sporadic number of transactions or external acts of sale, distribution, marketing or storage. A declaration on file shows only that the owner claimed use.
A prior good-faith user under Article 175, or a former distributor exposed under Article 258, is found by asking who else sells under the name, and counterfeit supply is found where the goods are sold. A field investigation establishes whether the mark is in use, in what form and on which goods, and who sells goods under it, then sets that against the registrations, declarations and licenses on file. It closes the gap described in our note on why a foreign checklist falls short in Mexico: a data room shows what the seller chose to put in it.
Where we come in
Warden Consulting carries out the record and field work behind IP due diligence in Mexico from its office in the World Trade Center in Mexico City, with investigating lawyers working the federal registers and investigators in the states where the goods are sold. On the record side that means searches of IMPI's trademark, patent and design records and the Gazette, review of INDAUTOR registrations and recorded transfers, chain-of-title and recordal checks for each right the deal depends on, and litigation searches. In the field it means establishing whether a mark is in use in the market and who is selling goods under it.
We report the records against the field findings and mark where they disagree, so that the deal team and its IP counsel can decide what to fix before signing. To scope a review, contact our Mexico City office.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check who owns a trademark in Mexico?
Look up the registration or application number in Marcanet, IMPI's trademark database, and read the file in ViDoc, IMPI's document viewer. The file shows the holder of record, renewals, declarations of use and recorded transfers, licenses and liens. An unrecorded transfer does not produce effects against third parties (Article 250 of the LFPPI).
Does a US trademark registration protect a brand in Mexico?
No. The exclusive right in Mexico comes from registration with IMPI (Article 170 of the LFPPI), filed directly or through an international registration designating Mexico. A distributor or agent that registered a foreign owner's mark in its own name without express consent is exposed to nullity under Article 258.
What happens if a Mexican trademark is not used?
The registration lapses by operation of law if the owner does not declare use in the three months after the third anniversary of grant, or at renewal after IMPI's two-month cure period. A mark unused for three consecutive years can also lose its registration, in whole or for the goods not in use, through a lapse action under Article 235.
Do I need to record a trademark assignment in Mexico?
Yes, if the assignment is to bind third parties. Article 250 of the LFPPI requires the transfer of a mark or a pending application to be recorded with IMPI before it produces effects against third parties, and Article 257 Bis applies the same rule to a change of the holder's name or legal form.
Who owns software developed by employees in Mexico?
Unless agreed otherwise, the employer owns the economic rights in a program and its documentation created by employees in their duties or on the employer's instructions (Article 103 of the LFDA). Other works made by employees under a written employment contract are presumed to be shared equally, and belong to the employee if there is no written contract (Article 84).
How long does a patent last in Mexico?
Twenty years from the recognized filing date, subject to annual fees (Article 53 of the LFPPI). Utility models last 15 years from filing, and industrial designs five years, renewable up to 25 (Articles 62 and 78).
This article is general information, not legal advice.