Free guide

Search your trademark at the IMPI before using it

You have had your business name on the sign, on social media and on your cards for years. But in Mexico, under the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (article 170), anyone may use a trademark, and the exclusive right to use it is obtained by registering it with the IMPI, the government trademark office. This guide shows you how to check whether your name already belongs to someone.

1. Open the official search

Go to the IMPI trademark search (its internal name is Marcanet). When we checked it for this guide it opened without asking for an account, and it shows a Quick search screen with a field to type the brand.

IMPI trademark search

2. Type your name and see what comes up

In the field that asks you to type the name of the brand you want to search, enter your business name and press Search (Buscar). Go through the results calmly: what matters is whether identical or very similar trademarks show up. The site is in Spanish.

3. Repeat with other spellings

Try the name without accents, in singular and plural, and with letters that sound the same spelled another way. For finer searches, the tool has an Advanced options section.

4. What to do with what you find

If nothing similar comes up, your name may be free, but that is not a guarantee: this is a first check and the IMPI reviews every application on its own. The law (article 173, section XVIII) provides that signs identical or confusingly similar to a registered or pending trademark for the same or similar goods or services would not be registrable. So if an identical or similar one comes up, your application could be rejected, and you might have to change your name if the other person registered first.

5. If you were already using the name

The law (article 175) provides that another person's registration would have no effect against someone who, in good faith, was already using the same or a similar trademark in the country and had been using it without interruption before that registration was requested. You would have to be able to prove it and every case is different, so do not take it for granted: ask a specialist.

6. If it is free, register it before you grow

If your name came up free, the next step is to apply for registration. Doing it before you spend on signs, social media and advertising saves you from changing them later.

Before you print anything

Search first, register second, and remember this guide is informational: a free search does not replace a specialist's analysis, and no search result guarantees the IMPI will grant your registration.

Sources

If you would rather have us do it, message us on WhatsApp or see Trademark Registration (IMPI).