Originally sent via Mailing List on July 3, 2020

Dear colleagues and friends,

We hope that this email finds you well. As the world adjusts to the new normalities, amid restrictions and precautions, we must all move forward.

In Mexico, economic activities have been slowly resuming, and we now have news from the Mexican IP Institute (IMPI) as to how this will be carried out. The guidelines for how IMPI will re-open were published July 03, 2020, and cover both how physical submission of documents will resume and when deadlines will become effective.

Submissions may be physically presented Monday to Friday as of July 06, 2020 at the main IMPI offices in Mexico City. Access will be limited, as will the number of submission that can be submitted by a single person, to 3 at a time, in order to favor online submissions when possible. To the degree that it is possible, we are presenting all submissions online. However, there are cases that cannot be submitted online (particularly patent matters); we are contacting our colleagues directly for such cases, in order to ensure that all deadlines are met.

The above measures will be in place for six months, or until the COVID-19 health emergency is deemed over.

Terms and deadlines will resume on July 13, 2020. Deadlines falling between the initial IMPI closure date of March 24, 2020 and July 13, 2020 will be due July 13, 2020. In many of these cases, further extensions will not be possible. If you have pending deadlines in Mexico which you believe you will not be able to meet, please contact us so that alternate strategies may be arranged in order to avoid the loss of any rights.

At WJB we have taken measures to ensure the continuity of service with a work-from-home strategy, but retain essential face-to-face activities such as reception of courier delivery and now physical submission at IMPI offices. Our full team continues to be available and there should be no evident change in our service.

As a reminder, we note that matters for cases submitted online (new patent/design/trademark applications, responses) can be submitted at any time, and we will continue do to so even after IMPI reopens. All cases submitted within this closure period will have a legal submission date of July 13, 2020.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding how the IMPI will be resuming activities, or regarding any deadlines with respect to specific cases, please do not hesitate to contact us. We shall also keep you updated regarding any relevant information.

Kind regards and a healthy outcome for all,

Julian Guerrero
Managing Partner

Click here to view all our previous closure notices that this text supersedes.