What to keep as evidence of use (and what doesn’t count)

Keep dated evidence of the real commercial use of your mark: invoices, inventories, advertising and photos. The declaration of use and the renewal don’t ask you to attach it (articles 233 and 237 of the LFPPI, Mexico’s Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property). You need it if someone requests the cancellation of your mark for nonuse and you have to defend it (article 235).

Your evidence doesn’t have to be perfect or plentiful. It has to show genuine use, in the quantity and manner that are normal for your line of business, with a date that can be checked. It helps to keep evidence from different points in time. This guide covers what to keep, for how long and how to organize it.

What does count as evidence

What counts is anything that shows your mark in real commerce. The Regulations say use can be shown, among other ways, with commercial transactions in a number relevant to your type of product, not sporadic or token ones, or with acts of sale, distribution, marketing or storage (article 121 of the LFPPI Regulations).

• Invoices (CFDI, the Mexican electronic invoice) that name your mark or the products bearing it. The law expressly recognizes them when they are yours or your licensee’s (article 333).
• Inventories and warehouse records showing the mark. The law expressly recognizes these too (article 333).
• Packaging and labels with the mark printed on them. Also keep the printer’s invoice: it dates the batch.
• Advertising: ads, catalogs, brochures and social media posts with a visible date.
• Product photos on display, at the point of sale or on delivery to the customer, with a date you can prove.
• Contracts with customers, distributors or licensees in which the mark appears.

What doesn’t work as evidence of use

This kind of evidence carries little weight or isn’t accepted at all:

• Mockups, renders or designs that were never used on the market.
• Material with no date, or with a date that’s easy to change in the file.
• Loose screenshots with no web address or publication date.
• Token use, such as a one-off sale to make it look like the mark is used: the Regulations refer to transactions that are not sporadic or token (article 121).
• Internal presentations or emails that don’t show the mark on the market. Being internal doesn’t rule a document out: inventories are internal, and the law recognizes them (article 333).
• Statements from witnesses or your own admission: they aren’t accepted unless they are recorded in a document (article 333).

What makes evidence strong: date and continuity

Two things turn an ordinary document into solid evidence:

1. A verifiable date: a third party can check the document’s date, and no one can change it afterwards.
2. Continuity: evidence spread out over time, instead of gathered all at once on the day someone asks for it.

One document a month for three years beats a hundred from a single week. A file with activity at different points in time does a better job of showing genuine use.

How long to keep evidence of use

A cancellation looks at the three years before the request (article 235). No one knows when one will come, so always keep the last three years complete, month by month.

Don’t throw out old evidence. A long file shows use of your mark over time, and the oldest pieces also help prove your date of first use.

How to organize your evidence of use

1. Make one folder per mark and, inside it, one per year.
2. Each month, save one or two invoices that name the mark and a dated photo or post.
3. Note which product or service in your registration each piece of evidence shows. After the declaration of use, protection continues only for the ones you declared (article 233).
4. If you have licensees, ask them for copies of their invoices every quarter: their use counts too (article 235).
5. Once a year, check that every product or service in your registration has its evidence.

How Prueba de Uso does this for you every week

Every Monday, Prueba de Uso publishes your mark in a weekly edition of its catalog. An accredited certification provider gives each edition a verifiable date. You don’t have to do anything: every week leaves a new edition with your mark.

For every edition you can download the catalog, your mark’s record and a certificate showing your mark appeared in it. Your invoices prove the sales. The certificate proves that your mark was published on that date. Together, they cover both.

Plans are priced per mark, billed monthly or annually. See how Prueba de Uso works.

Keep reading

• Trademark cancellation for nonuse in Mexico: what it is and how to avoid it
• How to prove use of your trademark in Mexico: options compared
• Your trademark’s date of first use: what it is and how to prove it
• Trademark declaration of use, on SisteMarca
• Trademark renewal, on SisteMarca

Sources

• Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property (LFPPI, last amended in the DOF on April 3, 2026): articles 233, 235, 237 and 333.
• LFPPI Regulations, article 121 (DOF of April 28, 2026).
• Law as in force on October 28, 2026. All sources are in Spanish.

Frequently asked questions