Mexico: Federal Law Of The Administrative Procedure

In 1994, the Federal Law of the Administrative Procedure was enacted in order to unify under the same principles, all administrative procedures scattered in many different laws in Mexico. Article 1 of the law limited its applicability to governmental entities in direct connection with the central executive officer. Under Mexican legislation, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) is not envisioned as a centralized entity, instead it is considered as one of the decentralized entities that were excluded from the application of this Law.

Last year, article 4 of the Law was amended, so its application would apparently include all executive entities without distinguishing whether they were centralized or decentralized, except for those entities expressly excluded by the law (the IMPI is not mentioned within such entities). Although it is a discussed matter with the federal judges (where we can even find contradictory criteria), there is nothing clear as to whether or not this law is in fact applicable to the Mexican Industrial Property Law.

The law includes a provision to prevent undue delays in connection with replies that the authority must deliver to a brief filed by any person. If the authority does not answer within 4 months, an appeal may be filed to force the authorities to immediately issue a reply. The purpose of this provision is to hasten all procedures because the authorities are no longer able to unduly delay the prosecution of any petition.

Additionally, the law also includes a special remedy against all decisions from the authorities. According to the law, this remedy shall be studied by the superior authority to the one that issued the first act. This remedy, if applicable, is contradictory to the remedy to which the interested party was traditionally entitled, and therefore, another considerable change in the field of Industrial Property will take effect.

We regret that we cannot take a position in this matter due to the fact that the interpretation given to this law by the different authorities and judges is still far from uniform.