For years prior to 2018, predatory agencies and dishonest firms targeted foreign trademark owners with solicitations for phantom maintenance procedures and unjustified fees. Following the August 10, 2018 reform to Mexico’s trademark
For years prior to 2018, predatory agencies and dishonest firms targeted foreign trademark owners with solicitations for phantom maintenance procedures and unjustified fees. Following the August 10, 2018 reform to Mexico’s trademark framework, these bad actors seized the statutory changes as a convenient pretext to perpetuate and aggressively expand deceptive practices. Between 2018 and 2025, businesses across the United States, Canada, and Europe were subjected to widespread misinformation campaigns designed to create a false sense of urgency surrounding Declarations of Use in Mexico.
One of the most common tactics was to demand three-year Declarations of Use for trademark registrations granted before August 10, 2018, even though those registrations are not subject to the transitional three-year declaration requirement and generally require a declaration of use only in connection with their ten-year renewal. Other agencies routinely collected fees for filings made outside the statutory periods established by Article 233 of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI). Declarations submitted prematurely—such as during the first or second year following registration—or after the applicable non-extendable three-month statutory period has expired do not provide the statutory compliance effect represented by these agencies, leaving trademark owners with unnecessary expenses and potentially creating a false sense of security.
Equally misleading was the claim that Mexican trademarks require recurring Declarations of Use every three years throughout their entire life cycle. Mexican law does not establish a general triennial maintenance obligation. Instead, the law establishes specific circumstances in which use must be declared: once following the third anniversary of the grant of the registration, where applicable, and subsequently as part of the ten-year renewal process. Advising trademark owners to file additional Declarations of Use at years six, nine, or other arbitrary intervals has no statutory basis. Such filings do not create additional trademark rights or satisfy a recurring maintenance requirement before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), but they can generate substantial and entirely unnecessary costs.
Protecting trademark rights in Mexico requires technical verification—not simply responding to unsolicited notices or payment demands. Proper portfolio management begins with reviewing the exact grant date of each Mexican trademark registration and, where applicable, the relevant date and status of an international registration designating Mexico under the Madrid System. Only after those dates and the applicable statutory provisions have been verified can a trademark owner determine whether a Declaration of Use is actually required.
Through www.declaraciondeuso.mx we provide transparent and verifiable trademark portfolio reviews designed to identify when a Declaration of Use is legally required—and when it is not. Our objective is simple: help foreign trademark owners avoid unnecessary filings, prevent unauthorized or unjustified costs, and maintain their Mexican trademark portfolios in compliance with the requirements of the LFPPI.