You can search Mexico’s trademark register for free in two IMPI tools, MARCia and Marcanet. Both show registered marks and pending applications, and a first search takes a few minutes. Do it before you spend anything on a filing.

It is also where most do-it-yourself searches go wrong. Here is how to use the tools, how to read what they show you, and what a free search cannot tell you.

MARCia and Marcanet are two separate tools

IMPI, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, runs both. They are different systems, so a careful search checks both:

  • MARCia at marcia.impi.gob.mx: search by name or upload an image of a logo, with search modes and filters.
  • Marcanet at acervomarcas.impi.gob.mx: IMPI’s trademark database, still online and separate from MARCia.

Both interfaces are in Spanish.

How to search in MARCia, step by step

  1. Open MARCia and type the name of your mark in the search box, or upload an image of your logo.
  2. Open Opciones avanzadas and choose the search mode:
    • Similar Plus (the default) is the broadest. Start here.
    • Similar finds marks that look or sound alike.
    • Contiene finds marks that contain your term.
    • Exacta finds exact matches only.
  3. Filter by Nice class to focus on the goods or services you actually sell. Not sure of your class? Use our Nice classification finder.
  4. Add filters if you need them: status, dates, owner or agent, file or registration number. For logos, Vienna codes search by figurative elements.
  5. Run the search and open each result to see its owner, classes, status and file history.

How to read what you find

  • No results is not a green light. A search finds only what you typed. A mark that sounds like yours but is spelled differently can still block you.
  • Similar marks in your class are the real risk. IMPI refuses a mark that is identical or confusingly similar to an earlier one for the same or similar goods or services (LFPPI art. 173, fr. XVIII).
  • Pending applications count. An application filed before yours has priority if it is granted.
  • Status matters. An expired or lapsed mark may no longer block you; a registered one will.

What a free search will not tell you

The tools show the register. They do not tell you whether IMPI will grant your mark: a search result is not an IMPI decision. They also do not weigh how similar is too similar, which classes IMPI treats as related, or whether a famous mark protects itself beyond its own classes, which the law allows for any goods or services (art. 173, fr. XVII).

A professional clearance search covers every related class, looks into the background of each conflicting mark, and tells you whether your own mark risks being refused as descriptive. That last point surprises many applicants: a name can be free on the register and still be unregistrable.

Want a second opinion before you file?

We run clearance searches for foreign companies before they file in Mexico, and tell you plainly whether we would file, change the mark, or narrow the goods. If the search looks clear, the next step is the trademark registration itself.

Send us your mark and the products or services it covers: request a clearance search.