Mexico Feature Articles

On January 25, 2006, an amendment to the Mexican Industrial Property Law was published in the Federal Official Gazette. The Amendment was published after a long discussion initiated by Congress in early 2005, and became effective on January 26, 2006. The amendment's final provisions were the result of a very effective lobbying campaign by major players in the franchising sector and, fortunately for the industry, Congress eliminated many of the overly restrictive aspects of the initial bill that could have unnecessarily hampered the industry. In the end, Congress' objective of providing more protection to franchisees was well balanced with the legitimate rights of franchisors. For example, certain ultra-protectionist provisions for franchisees originally contained in the bill, such as certain rights of first refusal in franchisees' favor and the right to request cancellation of registration of franchisor's trademarks in certain cases, were not incorporated into the amendment.

Big money, in the form of private equity, is finding a home in franchising, and bringing big promise to area developers and multi-unit operators-and to franchisors and franchise executives as well.

Fast food chicken franchising has come a long way from 1939, when Colonel Harlan Sanders introduced Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since then, brands like Church's, Chester's, and Popeyes have spread the gospel of fried chicken not only across the continent, but across the world. Fried chicken has become American as apple pie, and everybody wants a piece.

Quick lube shops may seem to be on every corner of most major American cities, but that's not true overseas in places like China and even north of the border in Canada.

In 1996, a young London inventor asked British franchise veteran Victor Clewes whether he should franchise or sell the innovative machine he'd created for filtering used cooking oil. Clewes had never set foot in a commercial kitchen, but it didn't take him long to see that Jason Sayers was sitting on a franchising goldmine.

The Mexican Congress is reviewing a bill ("Bill") intended to amend the Mexican Industrial Property Law ("IPL") to regulate franchise agreements and to add new disclosure procedures. It is still uncertain whether the Congress will approve the Bill. Currently, the IPL franchise regulations are very limited, and do not regulate the content of franchise agreements. The Bill adopts a very different approach in order to protect franchisees from perceived franchisor abuses.

Who ever forgets those early embarrassments? The careless and overheard remark in high school that gets repeated for months, the ticket for running a stoplight the day after you got your license-everyone knows those.

The IMPI is an agency of the Federal government created in 1993 which has its own assets, personality and budget. IMPI has over a 1,000 employees in Mexico, most of them are concentrated in our headquarters in Mexico City, but we also have regional offices in Guadalajara, Mérida, Monterrey and León. In terms of our human resources, around 63% of our employees have a bachelor degree, 25% have technical education, and 2% masters or PHD degrees which allows us to provide high-quality services to users.

Franchised businesses generate jobs for more than 18 million Americans and account for 9.5 percent of the private-sector economic output, a study released today by International Franchise Association Educational Foundation reported.