Mexico has been placed on the U.S. Priority Watch List for Intellectual Property issues in 2025

Key concerns:

The USTR's 2025 Special 301 Report emphasizes that Mexico, as part of its IP commitments under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), undertook significant legislative reforms, with amendments to its Federal Copyright Law and the implementation of its new Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, which replaced the old Industrial Property Law.

However, the 2025 Special 301 Report also states that Mexico still has several areas where its USMCA commitments have not been fully met. Key areas of concern, as mentioned in the USTR's 2025 Special 301 Report, are: 

• Lack of implementing regulations: Although Mexico has amended its Federal Copyright Law and implemented the new Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, a key concern is the continued absence of implementing regulations for these laws, which creates uncertainty for industries seeking to protect and enforce their IP rights in Mexico.
• Piracy in digital environments: Mexico continues to face high levels of copyright piracy, particularly in the digital environment, including through online streaming, peer-to-peer file sharing, direct downloads, circumvention devices for video games and consoles, and physical media. Obstacles to effective enforcement, such as the need to prove a direct economic benefit to the infringer and the length of legal proceedings, severely complicate the fight against these types of infringements.
• Lack of criminal actions: Historically, Mexico has established effective criminal investigation bodies and legal processes to enforce against trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. However, in recent years, due to resource cuts, enforcement in this area has almost been inexistent, and the Attorney General's Office (FGR) has not published any statistics on IP rights enforcement in the past five years. This lack of action creates significant issues in IP enforcement, which is why Mexico is urged to restore funding for law enforcement, increase IP-related cases, and impose deterrent penalties on infringers.               
• Geographical Indication Protection: The report highlights the importance to verify transparency and effective proceedings related to the protection of Geographical Indication (GI) and to ensure that granting protection to GIs does not deprive interested parties of the ability to use common names, particularly in relation to protections granted under trade agreements.

Conclusion

Mexico's inclusion in the USTR Special 301 Priority Watch List in 2025 highlights both progress and challenges in Intellectual Property protection in Mexico. While important progress has been made in creating new regulatory frameworks in Mexico, issues such as a lack of implementing regulations, resources and limited judicial action on IP infringements persist. The inclusion in the Priority Watch List  gives Mexico the opportunity to further improve its IP system and strengthen law enforcement, which could attract more investments.

Additionally, Mexico can use this inclusion as an incentive to continue advancing the harmonization of its IP policies with international standards, which could enhance competitiveness and attract more foreign investments.

Authored by Valentina Maria Schmid and Edgar Mata.