Technology Transfer Registry: Public Notice and Enforceability of Technology Transfer Agreements

August 5, 2026

The Regulations of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property establish the creation and operation of a Technology Transfer Registry in Articles 193 to 196. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) will administrate this registry with the aim of providing legal certainty and visibility for technology and knowledge transfer agreements in Mexico.

The registry will have a broad scope: licenses, assignments of intellectual property rights, confidentiality agreements, collaborative research agreements, consulting contracts, sponsored research agreements, material transfers, academic spin-off agreements, research-based start-ups, joint ventures, and in general any legal instrument involving the transfer of technology or knowledge can be registered to be enforceable against third parties.

A key point regarding the registry is that registration is not a requirement for instruments to be valid; contracts are fully effective between the parties even without registration. Registration serves as a condition for enforceability against third parties. As such, anyone wishing to assert their contractual rights against third parties should register the corresponding instrument.

A public version of the registered instruments will only include the following: the legal nature of the instrument, identification of the parties, the industrial property rights (including their application or registration number), the term of validity, and the territory of application.

The public versions will be prepared in accordance with the General Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information, with any provision whose disclosure could compromise trade secrets or the competitive position of the parties to be designated as confidential.

In addition, the IMPI will compile catalogs and directories of freely available technologies that can be used in Mexico, as well as technologies requested to be made public by their owners in order to facilitate transferring to third parties. This will provide an institutional channel to connect technology offerings with potential users and licensees.

Companies, universities, and research centers entering into technology transfer agreements should evaluate whether registration is prudent, especially if they want their rights to be enforceable against third parties. It´s also important, as early as the negotiation stage, to identify which clauses contain confidential information in order to ensure these are marked as classified and protected in the public version.