Mexico’s Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property establishes a framework for trade secret protection, including safeguards against unlawful disclosure. The Law provides for both administrative and criminal enforcement mechanisms, including administrative infringements (Art. 386) and criminal offences relating to trade secrets (Art. 402).
However, it is reported that the Conformity Assessment Procedure for Telecommunications and Broadcasting issued by the Plenary of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (DOF: 25 February 2020) has raised confidentiality concerns, insofar as it contemplates the submission of test reports that may contain detailed confidential information on ICT products. While the amendment to the 2021 Agreement has reportedly addressed earlier concerns about the automatic sharing of such reports, regulators may still request test reports in specific cases, which continues to generate trade secret and confidentiality risks for ICT manufacturers.

Mexico’s Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property establishes a framework for the protection of trade secrets. Title III of the Act defines trade secrets and misappropriation, recognises lawful means of acquisition, and provides administrative enforcement mechanisms to protect trade secrets.

Art. 125 of the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Act establishes a framework for infrastructure sharing. It requires the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to issue guidelines to promote, in a structured and progressive manner, co-location and the shared use of passive and active infrastructure and other physical resources, prioritising negotiated agreements between concessionaires. Where no agreement is reached, and sharing is necessary, the Commission may set the applicable technical, tariff, and operational conditions, and resolve disputes through the interconnection procedure, subject to a maximum time frame of 30 working days. The Law also requires that sharing agreements be registered in the Public Telecommunications Register.
Art. 123 further provides that operators with significant market power in the telecommunications sector are subject to specific obligations, including the obligation to conclude agreements for the shared use of infrastructure. The Law expressly repeals the previous Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (LFTR, DOF 14/07/2014), which already contained comparable infrastructure-sharing provisions (Arts. 138 and 139) under which the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission promoted co-location and shared-use arrangements. In addition, the “Agreement issuing the Guidelines for the Deployment, Access and Shared Use of Telecommunications and Broadcasting Infrastructure” (DOF 15/01/2020) sets out operational rules, including procedures, timelines, and registration requirements, for implementing access and shared-use arrangements.

The Mexican State maintains equity participation in parts of the telecommunications sector through the Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE). Following the publication of the Agreement creating CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos in the Official Gazette in August 2019, the CFE created CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos (CFE TEIT), a State-owned entity mandated to provide mobile telephony and internet services on a non-profit basis in order to support the right of access to information and communication technologies. In addition, in February 2025, CFE reported that its Board of Directors authorised the acquisition of a 49% stake in Altán Redes, a provider of wholesale mobile telephony and internet services, thereby strengthening the State’s presence in wholesale telecommunications infrastructure and operations.

Pursuant to Art. 123 of the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Act, operators designated as having significant market power (SMP) in the telecommunications sector are subject to specific obligations, including the obligation to submit, at least once per year, separated accounts and cost-accounting information for interconnection services to the Commission and to the authority responsible for competition and market access, in the form and in accordance with the methodologies and criteria determined by the competent authorities. Moreover, operators designated as having SMP are subject to functional separation obligations in the telecommunications market (Art. 256 and 267).

Mexico has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

In December 2024, Mexico removed the constitutional basis for the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) as an autonomous regulator and reassigned its core telecommunications and broadcasting regulatory functions to the Federal Executive. Under the subsequent institutional architecture, the IFT was replaced by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (Comisión Reguladora de Telecomunicaciones, CRT), which operates as a deconcentrated technical body attached to the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications (ATDT). It is reported that the CRT is not independent from the government in its decision-making.

There are no foreign ownership limitations in sectors relevant for digital trade.

Mexico subjects certain foreign acquisitions to prior authorisation by the National Commission on Foreign Investment (CNIE). Under Art. 9 of the Foreign Investment Act, CNIE approval is required where a foreign investor seeks to acquire, directly or indirectly, more than 49% of a Mexican company and the target company’s total assets exceed the annual threshold determined by the CNIE. In 2025, the threshold is set at approximately USD 1.6 million.
In assessing authorisation requests, the CNIE considers, inter alia, expected effects on employment and training, the investment’s technological contribution, compliance with environmental requirements, and impacts on competitiveness, and it may impose only conditions that do not distort international trade (Art. 29). The CNIE may also deny authorisation on national security grounds (Art. 30).

It is reported that, for patent applications in Mexico, applicants who are not resident in the country must act through a local agent.

It is reported that concerns persist regarding the duration of administrative and judicial proceedings for patent and trademark infringement, and that infringement may continue while cases remain pending.

Mexico is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Mexico has a copyright regime under the Federal Copyright Act. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Art. 148 and the following list the exceptions, which include the reproduction of: parts of the work for scientific, literary or artistic criticism and research; of a single copy by an archive or library for security and preservation reasons, and which is out of print, out of print and in danger of disappearing; among others.