Mexican Army Seeks Trademarks for Animal Skins, Jewelry and Banking Services Under Tren Maya Brand

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The Mexican Army has filed a wave of trademark applications for the state-run Tren Maya project that would expand its commercial activities far beyond railway operations to include selling animal skins, jewelry with precious stones, and even banking services.

The 24 applications, submitted to the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) between November and December 2025, seek to register various “Tren Maya” brand names for diverse commercial ventures. While not yet approved, the requests have drawn criticism from environmentalists who question their consistency with the project’s stated purposes.

According to trademark registration documents, applications 3498367 and 3498476 seek exclusive use of “Tienda Tren Maya” (Tren Maya Store) for selling animal skins, leather goods, and equestrian equipment. Applications 3498362 and 3498393, also for “Tienda Tren Maya,” target commercial exploitation of “precious metals and their alloys, jewelry articles, precious and semi-precious stones, watchmaking articles and chronometric instruments.”

Application 3498331, for the “Tren Maya” trademark, would allow the Army to offer banking, financial, monetary, insurance and real estate services.

These commercial activities appear aimed at wealthy customers rather than the less privileged populations the federal project was supposedly created to serve, as former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador had claimed.

The state company currently holds 32 registered trademarks for railway transport, hotel and restaurant services. The new applications are likely to be approved since previous requests have faced no rejections. If authorized, the trademarks would be valid for 10 years under federal industrial property law.

Environmental Concerns

This isn’t the first controversy surrounding the Tren Maya project’s commercial activities. In 2024, the project contracted Susoma Soluciones Ambientales, a Toluca-based company, to scare away jaguars, deer and tapirs from areas near the railway that crosses the Yucatan Peninsula. The contracts classified these species as “harmful fauna,” sparking protests particularly in Playa del Carmen where Section 5 of the project is located.

José Urbina Bravo, a cave diver and founder of Sélvame MX (formerly Sélvame del Tren), the main environmental organization opposing the federal project in Quintana Roo, called the Army’s trademark applications contradictory given the ongoing environmental damage.

“It has become clear that none of the promised economic benefits from building the train through the Mayan jungle have materialized,” Urbina Bravo said. “The train will always generate debt and will never be able to generate enough to sustain itself, nor has it created the progress that was so promised. That’s why they’re trying to profit however they can — with invasions around the jungle, real estate projects, and now they want to profit with animal skin products. They would have no qualms about promoting products made from local animal skins.”

According to information obtained through the National Transparency Platform, from December 2023 to February 2025, Tren Maya generated 387,025,864 pesos (approximately $21.5 million) from ticket sales. In contrast, the López Obrador administration allocated 470,428 million pesos (approximately $26.1 billion) to the megaproject’s construction, creating a significant gap between costs and revenue.

“Some people think wearing a cap or shirt with the Tren Maya logo is a matter of pride, but in reality it’s promoting an immoral, illegal product — it’s promoting ecocide,” Urbina Bravo added. “It won’t be long before they promote these Tren Maya brands and their skin products.”

Legal Challenges Continue

The trademark applications coincide with the start of construction on a multimodal cargo terminal for Tren Maya west of the existing passenger station south of Cancún. The clearing permit for the 260-hectare site was granted by the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) in July 2025 despite the presence of protected coastal ecosystem flora and fauna.

In September 2025, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) filed for an injunction that wasn’t admitted until February 2026. The organization cited serious damage to the coastal ecosystem from deforestation and displacement of wildlife.

Both federal magistrates and the judge handling the case have refused to grant suspensions against the work, arguing that Cemda lawyers failed to demonstrate actual harm in their complaint. On March 10, federal judge Alonso Robles Cuétara rejected granting a definitive suspension in favor of the environmental organization.

With this decision, there are virtually no legal obstacles to completing the project, which is expected to begin operations before President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term ends.