IP filing trends in Mexico

The past decade and a half has seen significant expansion in IP activity by Mexican entities, according to statistics compiled by WIPO, some of which are illustrated over the next two pages. The figures for patent, trade mark and industrial design filings shown here illustrate filings by Mexican residents in Mexico and abroad (including regional filings), with growth rates of up to 350%.

Of the three registered rights, it is perhaps surprisingly designs that have increased the most, nearly 3.5 times from 1999 to 2013. In the same period, trade mark applications increased steadily, reaching a record 90,114 in 2013 – 2.5 times the figure in 1999. Indeed, the number of trade mark applications increased in every year apart from three (2002, 2003 and 2009). Patent applications grew three-fold between 1999 and 2012, before falling back slightly in 2013 (the latest year for which figures are available). The pie chart shows the top 10 fields of technology for patent applications for the whole period, with chemistry and manufacturing showing strongly, and electronics less so.

The end of the period covered by these figures saw Mexico's accession to the Madrid Protocol, so it will be worth monitoring what impact that has on the trade mark figures. Similarly, it will be interesting to see if the country takes any steps to accede to the Hague Agreement on designs, after the United States did to earlier this year. Finally, in the long term, the recently agreed Trans-Pacific Partnership may have an impact on IP filings by Mexican residents. There should be interesting times ahead.

All the data published here is sourced from the WIPO Statistics Database, available at wipo.int/ipstats/en/