When you apply to register your mark in Mexico, you either declare the date you started using it or say you don’t use it yet. That date can’t be changed afterwards (article 214 of the LFPPI, Mexico’s Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property). If you later can’t prove it, your registration can be declared invalid (article 258).
What is a trademark’s date of first use?
It’s the day you started using your mark on your goods or services. The application gives you two options: state that date, or say you don’t use the mark yet. If you leave it blank, the mark is treated as not yet used (article 214, section III).
If you give a date, you also give the location of your business (article 214, section VII). If you have no physical premises, it can be your website, as long as you state this in writing under a formal declaration of truth, known as bajo protesta de decir verdad (article 107 of the LFPPI Regulations).
If IMPI (Mexican Institute of Industrial Property) grants the registration, that date appears on your registration certificate (article 231).
What is the date of first use for?
It marks, against everyone else, the date from which you use your mark. Anyone who wants to invalidate your registration because they used the mark first has to prove they used it before your filing date or your date of first use (article 258, section II).
The same goes for good-faith prior users: your registration doesn’t affect someone who began using the mark, without interruption, before your application or before the date of first use you declared (article 175, section I). The further back the date you can prove, the less room there is for those claims.
Your date of first use doesn’t give you priority over other applications. Between competing applications, the earlier filing goes first (article 220): Mexico follows a first-to-file rule.
What happens if your date of first use is false or you can’t prove it?
If the owner can’t show that the declared date of first use is true, the registration can be declared invalid (article 258, section III). That action can be brought within the five years after the publication of the registration in the Gaceta, IMPI’s gazette, takes effect.
If your registration was applied for under the previous law, other rules may apply. The new grounds for invalidation apply only to registrations applied for and granted under the LFPPI (fourteenth transitional article).
Invalidation wipes out the registration’s effects back to the day it was granted (article 263). So declare a date you can back up with documents.
How do you prove your date of first use?
With documents from that date showing your goods or services in commerce, or available on the market, under your mark. The use has to be normal for your line of business. Token use, such as a one-off sale made just for appearances, doesn’t count (article 121 of the LFPPI Regulations).
| Evidence | What it shows about your date |
|---|---|
| First invoices (CFDI, the Mexican electronic invoice) | Sales with a date and a folio number. Keep the first one that names the mark. |
| Advertising and social media | That you offered the product or service to the public on a given date. |
| Dated photos | What the mark looked like on the product, the packaging or the store. Their date can be disputed. |
| Contracts | Agreements with customers or distributors, dated and showing the mark. |
| Prueba de Uso certificate | That your mark appeared in a weekly edition of the catalog, with a verifiable date. It covers the weeks since you subscribed. |
Evidence you gather today can’t prove a date from years ago. You prove your date of first use with what you kept from back then.
What should you keep from day one?
- The first invoice that names your mark and, after that, one or two a month.
- The first ad, post or catalog where your mark appears, with its date.
- Dated photos of the product, the packaging or the store.
- Contracts with customers or distributors.
For what to keep each month, see what to keep as evidence of use. For each option compared, see how to prove use of your trademark.
Where does Prueba de Uso come in?
Every Monday, Prueba de Uso publishes your mark in a new edition of its catalog. An accredited certification provider gives each edition a verifiable date. For every edition you can download a certificate showing your mark appeared in it.
Editions count from the day you subscribe, so the sooner you start, the more weeks with a verifiable date you’ll have. Plans are priced per mark, billed monthly or annually. See how it works.
If you haven’t registered your mark yet, see how to register a trademark in Mexico, on SisteMarca.
Sources
- Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI, last amended in the DOF on April 3, 2026): articles 175, 214, 220, 231, 233, 258 and 263, and fourteenth transitional article.
- LFPPI Regulations, articles 107 and 121 (DOF of April 28, 2026).
- Law as in force on October 29, 2026. All sources are in Spanish.
Frequently asked questions
What is a trademark’s date of first use?
It’s the date you started using your mark, which you declare in the trademark application. If you don’t state one, the mark is treated as not yet used (article 214 of the LFPPI).
Can the date of first use be changed?
No. The law says it can’t be modified once declared (article 214, section III, of the LFPPI).
What happens if I can’t prove my date of first use?
Your registration can be declared invalid if you don’t show that the date is true. That invalidation can be requested within the five years after the publication of the registration in the Gaceta takes effect (article 258 of the LFPPI).
Can I register a mark I don’t use yet?
Yes. In the application you state that you don’t use it yet (article 214 of the LFPPI). Within the three months after the third anniversary of your registration, you’ll have to declare its use (article 233).
How do I prove my trademark’s date of first use?
With documents from that date: your first invoices showing the mark, advertising, photos and contracts. They must show your goods or services on the market under your mark (article 121 of the LFPPI Regulations).