The main goal is that no one can profit from their names or use them, even in parody accounts on social networks.
MEXICO CITY (El Universal) – Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has begun registering his name and acronym as a trademark with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) to prevent third parties from profiting from them.
Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, the wife of the Chief Executive, also initiated the process with the same objective.
In six files, copies of which are in possession of EL UNIVERSAL newspaper, it is detailed that through Alejandro Esquer Verdugo, the President’s private secretary, between April and July, the procedures were started, for which almost 17,000 pesos were paid for the study of these applications.
On April 27, file 2352324 was opened so that the federal government could only use the “Andrés Manuel López Obrador” trademark in education, entertainment services, and as sports and cultural activities.
Meanwhile, according to file 2352331, the President’s name is also sought to be protected from being marketed in advertising, commercial business management, commercial administration, and office work.
In seeking to register the acronym “AMLO” as his brand, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reported that it was in 1995 when he began using this acronym. During that time, he led the Caravan for Democracy from Tabasco to Mexico City, demanding the state election’s annulment, since the then militant of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) accused that there was a fraud.
However, AMLO’s trademark also seeks to be registered since 2008 by four other people for sports, educational activities, and even to be marketed in alcoholic beverages.
In this sense, last May Graciela Márquez Colín, Secretary of Economy (SE), together with Juan Lozano Tovar, Director of the IMPI, in a press conference at the National Palace, informed that there were people who sought to own the trademark “AMLO,” but it was not granted because there was legislation in the matter that prevented it.
“There are people who want to register ‘AMLO’ as a trademark, [but] not everything we want to register we can do because there is an Industrial Property Law that the director follows to the letter because there are rules”.
The Industrial Property Law, in its article 90, section 13, details that the names, surnames, appellatives or pseudonyms of persons who, when used, may create a risk of association, induce error, confusion or deceit to the consuming public “unless it is that person or there is express consent from that person or from whoever has the corresponding right. Likewise, the image, identifiable voice, portrait, and signatures of persons shall not be registrable as trademarks without their express consent.”
In the applications, the President set as his domicile his house located in Cuitláhuac Street, Colonia Toriello Guerra, in the Tlalpan Mayor’s Office, and not the National Palace, where the President regularly resides together with his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller and his youngest son, Jesús Ernesto.
Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller also seeks to register his name, under files 2352319 and 2352328, in advertising, commercial business management, office work, and in the areas of education, entertainment services, sports, and cultural activities.
The registration granted by the IMPI allows the right to the exclusive use of the trademark in the national territory for ten years.
The 4T
On July 4, El Universal reported that during his term as leader of Morena, Yeidckol Polevnsky Gurwitz won eight designations that give identity to his party and the Fourth Transformation, seeking exclusive registration with the IMPI in 2019.
All are related to the party founded by Lopez Obrador, such as the denomination “Morena, La Esperanza de Mexico” (MORENA, the Hope of Mexico), he even took steps to obtain the exclusivity of “The Fourth Transformation,” a slogan of the federal administration.
