Yes, if your company has no domicile in Mexico and wants to register, keep in force, or defend a trademark in the country, you need a correspondent: a local attorney or firm authorized to receive notifications from Mexico's Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) and act on your behalf within the legal deadlines. This is not a formality. Mexico operates under a first-to-file system: whoever files first holds the right, regardless of who used the mark first somewhere else. If your correspondent misses a notification, an opposition, or a response deadline, you can lose the mark even if you have used it for years in your home country.
What exactly is an industrial property correspondent?
A correspondent is the local legal representative that, in practice, the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI) requires for a foreign company to operate efficiently before IMPI. IMPI notifies within Mexico, on Mexican business days, under deadlines set by Mexican law. A correspondent with a domicile in the country receives those notifications, understands what is being requested, and responds within the deadline, without losing time while the notice crosses time zones, languages, and internal departments at your company.
This applies whether you file directly before IMPI or you reach Mexico through the Madrid Protocol, designating the country from an international registration. Either way, the moment there is an obstacle, a third-party opposition, or a cancellation action, you will need someone in Mexico able to act immediately.
Why this matters to more companies every year
The volume of foreign trademarks seeking protection in Mexico is growing, and the numbers confirm it:
- In 2025, Mexico was the Madrid System member with the strongest growth in subsequent designations, receiving 2,325 designations and overtaking Canada (1,948) and the United States (2,058), which had led that ranking in 2024. In total designations received in Madrid applications filed in 2025, Mexico accumulated 11,869, with an annual growth rate of 13.6 percent. Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Madrid Yearly Review 2026, wipo.int/en/web/madrid-system/w/news/2026/madrid-system-yearly-review-2026.
- In the first half of 2026, IMPI received 126,888 applications for trademarks, trade names, and commercial notices; 26 percent of foreign origin, and 12 percent of all applications arrived through the Madrid Protocol. Source: gob.mx, official statement "El IMPI anuncia resultados en materia de propiedad industrial durante el primer semestre de 2026," gob.mx/impi/prensa.
- In full year 2025, IMPI received 240,991 applications for distinctive signs (trademarks, trade names, and commercial notices), 9 percent more than in 2024, and granted 178,072 trademark registrations, 5 percent more than the previous year. Mexico ranked 11th worldwide in trademark registrations granted, according to WIPO. Source: coverage of IMPI's results conference, January 2026, mexicoindustry.com/noticia/impi-alcanza-record-historico-de-patentes-mexicanas-en-2025-y-fortalece-el-ecosistema-de-innovacion.
Translated into what matters to in-house counsel: there are more applications, more oppositions, more movement in the registry, and a growing share of that movement is driven by foreign companies who, without someone watching the file in Mexico, find out too late that something went wrong.
What a good correspondent does when a problem shows up
Filing the initial application is the easy part. A correspondent's real value shows when:
- IMPI issues an office action or a refusal (procedural or substantive) and a response is due within a specific deadline, filed directly with IMPI rather than through the World Intellectual Property Organization.
- A third party opposes your application or files a cancellation action, and the defense needs to be built with knowledge of how IMPI and Mexican courts actually decide, not just what the statute says on paper.
- Someone else is using an identical or similar sign in Mexico, and you need to decide, with facts on the ground, whether an administrative action before IMPI, a criminal complaint, a customs action, or all three at once, is the right move.
- Your company needs clear instructions, in your language, about what is happening, without the message getting lost between Mexican law and your in-house legal team abroad.
The case of Chinese and other Asian companies entering Mexico
One group that has grown noticeably is companies from China and other parts of Asia entering the Mexican and Latin American markets, often drawn by nearshoring. Their challenge is not only language: it is understanding a first-to-file system where, if they do not register before operating, someone else can register their mark first, in good or bad faith, and they end up negotiating to recover what was already theirs at home. A correspondent who understands that dynamic, and who can communicate in the right languages, closes that blind spot before it turns into litigation.
"The question foreign companies ask me most is not how to register a trademark in Mexico. It is how fast we find out if something goes wrong. That is the real difference between having a correspondent and just having a mailbox."
What to ask before choosing a correspondent in Mexico
- Do they litigate, or only file? A firm that only submits applications does not necessarily know how to defend them once a contested proceeding starts.
- Do they have real presence across all three tracks: administrative before IMPI, criminal before the Attorney General's Office, and customs enforcement at the border?
- How do they notify you when something arrives, and how quickly?
- Do they have experience with companies from your region or your home language?
No answer guarantees the outcome of a case: that depends on the facts and on each authority's own criteria. What a good correspondent can guarantee is that no deadline is missed for lack of notice.