Next reduction in patent validity will boost markets

With the regulations of the Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property – which is about to be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) – The validity of patents will be reduced from 4.5 to 3.5 years so that there is greater competition, especially in drugs and medical devices, said Santiago Nieto, general director of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI).

“After five years since the law was issued, there is no regulation, (but) there is already a proposal in accordance with what was approved by Congress and we await publication on DOF”, he commented in an interview.

The regulation establishes, he assured, a provisional patent application that allows a creator to “set aside” an idea that he had generated for one year so that no competitor can take it. In turn, it will reduce the validity of patents from 4.5 to 3.5 years.

“We have a reduction of one year in the term of patents from the substantive examination. This will allow us, as a whole, to have a patent last 3.5 years, instead of the 4.5 years that we currently have, and this would imply that, among other things, medicines and medical devices can come to market quickly,” he indicated.

This regulation will promote the fight against piracy, he noted, since “75 percent of the industry is affected. For example, in the area of ​​tobacco, 15 billion pesos in tax evasion are estimated, given that 20 percent of the tobacco circulating in our country is pirated,” Nieto assured.

“What does that mean? Well, that this money goes to Mexican companies, that it is paid in taxes and, mainly, that the work of Mexican men and women is maintained. There are many sectors that are having to close sources of employment, precisely because of piracy.”

In alcohol products, he specified that there is counterfeiting of mezcal and a violation of the designation of origin in California.

“We have already asked the United States to take action on the matter because mezcal is an emulsion of Mexican origin and they cannot use the word. They used the expression ‘mezcalifornia’ in a brand and that is deceiving the consumer,” explained the general director of IMPI.

Regarding the reduction in patent validity, the official explained: “we have carried out exercises that have allowed us to grant patents in seven months. The objective is that we can have medicines on the market faster.”

The same with patents from other sectors: from civil engineering, food, electromechanics, electronics, semiconductors, to electromobility.