Mexico and the United States sign accelerated patent licensing agreement

Recently, the Mexican Intellectual Property Office IMPI and the United States Intellectual Property Office USPTO signed an accelerated patent licensing agreement APG. Eligible patent applicants can use this expedited program to obtain patent authorization faster in Mexico based on a U.S.-issued patent.

Under the APG procedure, an applicant for a patent that has been granted in the United States can file a request for accelerated examination at any time during the IMPI examination process to obtain the authorization of a Mexican patent more quickly. The patent application will be published in the Mexican Industrial Property Gazette. and comply with Mexican patent laws. The APG procedures will take effect immediately upon publication.

APG accelerated patent authorization is only applicable to patent applications that have been submitted to the USPTO and IMPI. Mexican applications need to meet the following conditions:
1. The application effectively claims U.S. priority under the Paris Convention.
2. The application (including the PCT national phase application) has the same priority as the corresponding USPTO application.
3. The corresponding USPTO application can also be an application derived based on the priority claimed by the Mexican patent application.

Patents that meet the following conditions can submit an APG request:
1. The corresponding USPTO patent application has been determined as patentable by the USPTO, and the authorized patent has been published in the USPTO Patent Gazette.
2. All claims in the Mexican patent application submitted at IMPI must fully correspond to the claims of the patent authorized by the USPTO, or be modified to fully correspond.
3. The Mexican patent application submitted to IMPI has passed the formal examination and has been published in the Industrial Property Law Gazette.

Request documents required for the APG program:
1. Patent number issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and published in the Gazette.
2. Spanish translation of the claims.
3. Correspondence table showing how all the claims applied for by IMPI fully correspond to the patent claims granted by the USPTO. When the claims are literal translations, the applicant can only indicate "same" in the form. When the claims are more than a literal translation, it is necessary to interpret the adequate correspondence of each claim according to rules standards.

APG expedites authorization requests without any official fees. However, if the claims of a Mexican patent application need to be modified to meet sufficient correspondence requirements, a voluntary claim amendment fee will be paid in accordance with Mexican Patent Law.

Users who need the APG program user guide can directly contact Page Code to obtain it.