1.

1 Intellectual Law

Intellectual Law refers to the set of rules that govern the privileges and benefits
that laws recognize and grant to authors/inventors and their assignees for creating
artistic, scientific, industrial, and commercial works.

When works aim to satisfy aesthetic feelings or relate to knowledge and culture in
general, the rules that protect them make up intellectual property, or authors
rights, in a strict sense. Matters, rules, concepts, and principles dealing with the
challenges faced by intellectual creators broadly fall under authors rights.

On the other hand, if human intellectual activity seeks specific solutions in the
fields of industry and commerce, or chooses differentiating elements for
establishments, goods, and services, those acts are subjects of industrial property.

The main focus of intellectual property is recognizing the moral and economic
value of intellectual creations for the cultural, social, and economic development
of nations.

Intellectual property rights cover a broad range of rights of different nature: some
originate from an act of intellectual creation to stimulate and reward such creation,
while others are granted to regulate competition among producers, whether
there’s intellectual creation involved or not.

WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization

In the 21st Century, Intellectual Property will hold a significant role internationally.
Intellectual works, such as inventions, designs, brands, literary, musical, and
audiovisual works, are used and enjoyed worldwide today.

WIPO is an international organization aimed at ensuring creators and intellectual

property holders’ rights are protected worldwide, and that inventors and authors
are acknowledged and rewarded for their creativity. This global protection
encourages human creativity, advancing science and technology and enriching
literature and the arts. It also creates a stable environment for marketing
intellectual property-inclusive products, contributing significantly to international
trade.

WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization

WIPO has 193 member countries, nearly 94% of the world’s total, reflecting the
growing importance of the Organization’s work.

Member States (wipo.int)

The WIPO performs various tasks related to intellectual property rights protection,
like managing international treaties, assisting governments, organizations, and
the private sector, and harmonizing and simplifying relevant rules and practices.
Relevance, efficiency, communication, and international cooperation are key in its
operations.

WIPO faces many challenges; one of the most urgent is adapting and benefiting
from rapid technological change, especially in information technology and the
internet. The Organization works towards enriching the wealth of nations and
improving the quality and joy of life.

The WIPO grouped industrial property and copyright in the Convention

concluded in Stockholm on July 14, 1967 (by which WIPO is established / (WIPO
Convention / wipo.int) under Art. 2 as follows:

Intellectual Property shall be understood as:

1. Literary, artistic, and scientific works. (Authors rights)

2. Performances and broadcasts. (Related Rights)
3. Inventions in all human activity fields. (Patent Rights)
4. Scientific discoveries. (Patent and Author Rights regarding the discoverer’s
name)
5. Industrial designs and models. (Industrial Design Rights)

6. Factory, trade, and service marks, names, and designations. (Trademark

Rights)
7. Protection against unfair competition.

Of these, only Patent Rights and Industrial Design Rights share with authors rights
the goal of protecting the outward manifestation of intellectual creation and
ensuring economic benefit from its use.

1.2 Industrial Property Rights

Seen as the exclusive and temporary privilege to use creations and distinctive
signs of goods, establishments, and services, it includes four institutional groups.

The first component group of industrial property is industrial creations, protected

by varying instruments and denominations across countries, commonly being
patents, invention certificates, utility model registers, industrial model registers,
trade secrets, integrated circuit layouts, and plant varieties.

The second component group consists of distinctive signs like trademarks, trade
names, appellations of origin, geographical indications, and slogans / commercial
ads, varying slightly across legislations.

The third, suppression of unfair competition is also linked to industrial property.

The last group, thanks to economic advancement and technological progress,

includes technical knowledge or know-how, domain names, social
networks/Metaverse, and the various phases that make up technology and its
transmission.

Constitutional Basis

The constitutional basis/grounds of the Intellectual Property regime in Mexico are

found in article 28 of our Constitution, which establishes the prohibition of
monopolies, fixed prices, and tax exemptions. It also contemplates activities that
will not constitute monopolies. Intellectual Property rights are one of the
exceptions that are not considered a monopoly and are granted exclusively to the
holder or author of a result, in addition to articles 73 and 89 of Mexico’s
Constitution.

Subject for students: Kelsen’s Pyramid in Mexico

Hans Kelsen, Austrian jurist, and philosopher (1881-1973)

In the Mexican case, Kelsen’s Pyramid (a graphical representation of the hierarchy

of laws in any organized social system) is made up of four hierarchical levels, which
are:

• The Constitution of Mexico. Located at the top of the country's Kelsen

Pyramid, it contains three fundamental parts: the preamble, the dogmatic
part, and the organic part. Along with it are the International Treaties on
Human Rights that the nation has signed.
 • Federal Laws. This second step is occupied by the set of federal laws, as it
is a federal nation. These laws govern the set of different Mexican states
and apply to the entire nation as a whole and consist of the following sub-
steps:

• Formal laws. These are State Constitutions, State Laws, Organic

Laws, and Official Standards.
• International Treaties not related to Human Rights. Like
commercial, political, diplomatic agreements, etc.

• Local Laws. These describe the powers of municipalities, purely local in

scope and minority compared to the higher steps of the pyramid. These are
"ordinary" laws of lower rank that govern the norms and regulations of the
last step.

• Base norms and regulations. In this last step, the widest and the base of
the pyramid, are legislative regulations, as well as Individualized Legal
Norms, which are specific legal actions, like contracts or wills, and that can
never contravene the higher steps of the pyramid.

Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (“IMPI”)

The IMPI is a decentralized public body of the Federal Government, responsible

for registering and protecting everything related to industrial property.

Mexican Institute of Industrial Property / Federal Law for Industrial Property

Protection (“LFPPI”)