The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his wife, the writer Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, began the process to register their names and acronyms as a trademark before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), with the intention of preventing third parties from can profit from them.
The president’s private secretary, Alejandro Esquer Verdugo, was in charge of starting the procedures, for which around 17,000 Mexican pesos (769 dollars) were paid.
File 2352324, opened by the IMPI on April 27, contemplates the possibility that the trademark “Andrés Manuel López Obrador” be used exclusively by the head of the Mexican Executive Power in matters such as education, entertainment services, and also in activities sports and cultural.
In addition, file 2352331 was opened in order to protect the president’s name and prevent its commercialization in advertisements, commercial business management, commercial administration, and office work, according to El Universal.
In May, the Secretary of Economy, Graciela Márquez Colín, together with the director of IMPI, Juan Lozano Tovar, reported that they had a record of some people who had tried to register the acronym “AMLO” as a trademark, although in no case were they granted because there is legislation on the matter that prevents it.
Therefore, when submitting his application to register the acronym “AMLO” as his own trademark, López Obrador had to inform the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property that he began to use these acronyms in 1995 when he led the Caravan for Democracy. Then, the current president marched from the state of Tabasco to Mexico City to demand the annulment of the state election of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which he accused as fraudulent.
For her part, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller also began the procedures to register her name and acronyms, as recorded in files 2352319 and 2352328, in the areas of advertising, commercial business management, office work, as well as in educational matters, services of entertainment, sports and cultural activities.
The registration granted by IMPI allows the exclusive use of a trademark to its owners in Mexico for a period of 10 years.
