Court Rejects Tren Maya Brand Registration Bid

Mexico City — Magistrates in Mexico City have dealt a setback to the Barbachano family in their attempt to appropriate the brand associated with the Tren Maya project. The magistrates dismissed a fiscal review appeal filed by Fernando Barbachano Losa, the grandson of Fernando Barbachano Herrero, who is seeking to take ownership of the trademark.

Last week, Sol Quintana Roo reported, based on reviews of judicial files, that the grandson of Fernando Barbachano initiated legal proceedings in the Specialized Chamber in Intellectual Property Matters of Mexico City. In these proceedings, he is seeking to be declared the concessionaire of the term "Espresso Maya," along with a logo similar to that of the Tren Maya, for commercial exploitation.

The aforementioned Specialized Chamber of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice has not ruled in favor of the grandson of the Yucatecan landowner. In response, he recently filed a fiscal review appeal with the Sixteenth Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters in Mexico City, which was immediately dismissed. This outcome indicates he is likely to be left wanting in his attempt to exploit the brand for his commercial purposes.

"The present fiscal review appeal was dismissed for being notoriously inadmissible, and with this, the court files from the nullity trial 1062/24-EPI-01-2 were returned to him," reads the judicial agreement that was consulted.

According to the case file accessed by Sol Quintana Roo, the grandson of Barbachano Herrero sued the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) with the aim of appropriating the denominations and logo for his personal use.

In March 2023, Barbachano Losa applied to the IMPI to register the aforementioned trademark along with an image for use in restaurant, bar, and cafeteria services.

However, the IMPI, according to the consulted resolution, denied the registration of such denominations for commercial purposes. The institute determined that the sign proposed for registration misleads the consuming public by constituting false indications regarding the origin of the services it intends to distinguish, as they are associated with the federal Tren Maya project.