Trademarks and Importer of Record

Trademarks

A trademark is a symbol and/or word(s) legally registered or established by their use, as representing a company or a product. Obtaining a trademark is the best way to safeguard your individual brand.  Your company needs to have a registered trademark in the country involved in the product’s distribution in order to protect its use exclusively for you. While AF Holding can obtain trademarks for your company in many overseas and global markets, we will use Mexico as a case study. In Mexico, the right of trademark exclusive use can be obtained only through the grant of the register of its trademark by the Mexican government. Trademark use is not required to secure a mark's registration. The first party to file an application may acquire ownership of a trademark and thus the right to exclusivity, even if it is not using the trademark. AF Holding can search international data bases to see whether your company’s seeking a potential trademark is worth pursuing.

AF Holding offers quickly executed, all-inclusive filings, to assure you of having the full security you need to protect your products, and ultimately, your overall brand.

Importer of Record

AF Holding can act as the importer of record for your products. While AF Holding provides services for all overseas markets, we will again use Mexico as a case study example. Mexican law assigns the NOM trademark to a specific product and to a specific party. The party importing the product must be the party listed as holding the NOM trademark. NOM certification in Mexico is both product specific and importer specific. The NOM must be issued for a product to the party that is the Importer of Record for that said product. The Importer of Record is the party that will handle the customs clearance. It usually is the shipper or the consignee. Or, it can be a third party.

The importer of record must be both a legal Mexican business entity and have an importers license. Exporters that do not have Mexican branches will not be able to ship products into Mexico without having either the consignee or a third party import these products on their behalf.

AF Holding is a fully licensed importer in Mexico. We can act on your behalf in order to ship products, clear customs, pay duties, transport to your warehouse and/or retailer, and to inventory your products in a competent shipping and storage warehouse.