New judicial criteria regarding the deadline to request revocation of a trademark registration.

September 03, 2025

On August 7, 2025, the Regional Plenary Court of Administrative and Civil Matters of the Central-North Region, located in Mexico City, resolved the Contradiction of Criteria 212/2024, in which it was discussed whether Articles 225 and 226 of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI) establish a deadline for a trademark applicant to request the revocation of a trademark registration that prevents them from obtaining their trademark.

The aforementioned articles essentially stipulate that when the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) analyzes a trademark application, the applicant has a period of 2 months – extendable for another 2 months – to respond to any missing requirements, oppositions, or impediments indicated by the authority. It should be noted that these provisions are based on Articles 122 and 122 BIS of the previously repealed Industrial Property Law, which established similar regulations.

The criteria that were contested were that of the Twenty-First Collegiate Court of Administrative Matters of the First Circuit, which ruled that an applicant who wanted to initiate an administrative declaration of revocation for a conflicting, previously registered trademark must do so within the 4-month period; and that of the Twentieth Collegiate Court of Administrative Matters of the First Circuit, which held that this term only applied for responding to official requests from the IMPI, meaning that a revocation could be requested so long as the trademark registration procedure is not abandoned, or once it has been conclusively resolved.

In this regard, the Regional Plenary Court conclusively determined that Articles 225 and 226 of the LFPPI do not establish a deadline to request the revocation of a trademark registration which prevents an applicant from obtaining their registration, given that this period was established by the legislators so that the applicant can provide responses with regard to the requirements, oppositions, or impediments communicated by the IMPI during the analysis of the trademark application.

This criterion will become mandatory once the respective jurisprudence is published in the Judicial Weekly Journal of the Federation, and as such an administrative declaration of revocation may be requested outside the 4-month period, as established by the articles in question, when there is a legal interest deriving from the application in process.