Exclusive: Barcos Caribe Trademark Up for Grabs After a Decade

The "Barcos Caribe" trademark, associated with the shipping company of former governor Roberto Borge Angulo, is now available for private use. This comes after a decade-long failure to complete the registration process with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property.

"Barcos Caribe" was the brand name Borge Angulo hoped to use to monopolize the federal marine route from Playa del Carmen to Cozumel. The registration process was initiated by trading company Impulsora Marítima de Quintana Roo and the Caribe, which was founded by Borge Angulo's proxies. However, they never completed the registration, leaving the trademark unprotected nearly ten years after the process began.

This means that the "Barcos Caribe" name is now available for anyone to use for commercial purposes, following intellectual property protection guidelines. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (AMPI) records show that Impulsora Marítima de Quintana Roo filed for the "Barcos Caribe" trademark registration on October 21, 2014. The intention was to use the name for transport and travel organization, starting with the launch of the Barcos Caribe shipping company in 2015. However, the company's concession was later revoked by the Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT).

Impulsora Marítima de Quintana Roo and the Caribe, currently under embargo by the FGR, was established by Franco González Padrón and César Celso Hernández Hermosillo in 2012 in Chetumal. Both are accused of being proxies for Roberto Borge Angulo. The registration process was never resumed following a series of events, including an explosion at the Playa del Carmen pier and the subsequent apprehension of Roberto Borge. Now, a decade later, the trademark is unprotected and unlikely to be reclaimed by its previous sponsors, diminishing Borge's chances of using the name again.