IMPI activities in support of MSMEs 679. Mexico thanks the proponents. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has proposed making the industrial property system available to users, including MSMEs, in an accessible and simplified way, and with the required support to enable a greater number of creators and entrepreneurs to access such a system, without intermediaries, which will bring down their management costs. The Institute is focussing its efforts on enhancing processes, facilitating access to electronic mechanisms and fostering a culture of industrial property in Mexico, with a direct impact on MSMEs, which make up the majority of the users of the services offered by IMPI. 680. Among the activities that IMPI is undertaking in support of MSMEs, are the following: Enhancing IMPI's electronic services 681. From March 2019, IMPI ceased using postal services for all its notifications and procedures and switched to using email as the main means of communication with users who were still processing their documentation over the counter. IMPI now sends emails to notify users of Industrial Property Gazette notifications. 682. Approximately 110,000 people, including those in MSMEs, who each year file for protection for their trademark or invention directly at IMPI, have benefitted from this enhancement. 683. In August 2019, a one-stop online integrated services platform was launched. This platform provides creators and entrepreneurs, particularly MSMEs, with the ability to file their requests for trademarks and patents entirely online and to sign their documents with their Single Population Registration Code (CURP) and an email address. The platform uses intuitive and user-friendly language, sends notifications by email, allows online payments by means of credit cards or electronic transfers and provides user guides to explain in clear and didactic terms, step by step, how to use the platform to enjoy all of the services offered by IMPI. 684. In addition to this electronic services platform, the Institute developed a mobile app which provides, amongst other things, user tutorials on how to complete procedures directly, without the need for third parties; a survey or quiz to help entrepreneurs identify the most appropriate form of protection for their intellectual property; and a function that makes it possible to search for documents in the IMPI databases by means of a QR code. 685. The official IMPI Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram accounts provide free online tutorials and courses to help MSMEs and individual users complete the document submission process online, without the need for intermediaries. Partnership with other local government agencies 686. During this new administration, activities directly supporting MSMEs have been carried out in partnership with the country's state governments. 687. Over the course of 2019 and so far in 2020, various partnership agreements have been reached with the aim of deepening the culture of industrial property rights protection by means of knowledge-sharing activities and those which foster the use of the industrial property protection system for MSMEs, traders, manufacturers, natural persons and individuals interested in protecting their industrial property rights. 688. IMPI has carried out specialized consulting and guidance activities on trademark applications for MSMEs that are supported by the Secretariats for Economic Development of various States. 689. Currently, IMPI is continuing its collaboration with other governments to further develop the protection of traditional products from communities of such States, particularly through MSMEs. Consulting and training 690. IMPI consistently provides specialized consulting in industrial property by means of conferences, courses, lectures and information booths at various events aimed at Mexican entrepreneurs and creators, and events aimed at MSMEs. These activities responded to requests and exchanges with various public, private and corporate sector agencies and bodies. 691. The activities carried out throughout the country, mainly aimed at MSMEs, include the following:6 a. Provision of 2,107 physical or online courses, workshops, diploma courses, lectures and lecture series, covering trademark and patent-related topics. b. Of note were the continuous courses broadcast live on Facebook Live. The videos of these courses are stored on the official IMPI Facebook profile so that entrepreneurs and creators can always access them. c. Consulting was provided on 110,312 occasions in person, by telephone and online through buzon@impi.gob.mx and social media.
