SAT increased IP-related customs seizures

The Tax Administration Service (SAT) increased seizures in Mexican customs related to Intellectual Property (IP).

Regarding the application of intellectual property at the border, the SAT initiated 642 cases in 2020, compared to 541 cases in 2019,

As a result, seizures totaled 8.82 million items in 2020, compared to 3.45 million in 2019.

These SAT seizures were made to address current issues related to bad faith trademark registrations.

According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), rights holders have expressed concern about the length of administrative and judicial proceedings for patent and trademark infringement and the persistence of the infringement while the cases remain pending.

In administrative infringement proceedings, preliminary measures can still be lifted without any burden of proof if the alleged infringer provides a counter-bond.

SAT

Likewise, according to the USTR, in matters related to pharmaceutical products, the United States is concerned that since May 2019, the Mexican health regulator, Cofepris, has practically stopped in the marketing approvals of new pharmaceutical products , with very few approvals granted during 2020.

The United States continues to monitor potential patent issues related to Mexico’s pharmaceutical procurement processes, which were reviewed in 2020.

With respect to geographical indications, Mexico must ensure that any protection of geographical indications, including those negotiated through free trade agreements, is only granted after a fair and transparent process of examination and opposition.

The United States remains “very concerned” about countries negotiating product-specific IP results as a condition for access to the EU market and reiterates the importance of each individual IP right being independently assessed on its individual merits. said the USTR.

The USTR added that piracy and counterfeit products remain widespread in Mexico.

As access to broadband increases, online piracy has increased.

Also the prevalence of counterfeit products in notorious physical markets remains a major problem, compounded by the involvement of transnational criminal organizations.