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1905 The Agencia Mexicana de Patentes y Marcas is born.
Mexico was a country experiencing an industrial, commercial and entrepreneurial boom, and the capital was its focal point. Carlos Uhthoff, a young Mexican of German descent, decided to actively participate within this ambience of vitality, enthusiasm and daring that characterized Mexico at the beginning of the last century. He offered his services in the areas of protection of inventions and creations to researches, scientists, entrepreneurs, businessmen and intellectuals, both within the Mexican republic as in the world at large. With this in mind, Carlos Uhthoff founded the Agencia Mexicana de Patentes y Marcas and for 27 years he remained in charge of the office. During his last years, his brother Javier joined the Firm.
Javier Uhthoff continued his borther’s legacy and took over and with discipline and personalized attention the agency was booming. Given the stability and institutionalized conditions of the nation, Javier added a new ingredient: the internationalization of the firm.
The 40s was a defining decade in Mexico, it was during those years when industry supplanted agriculture and the stimulation of private initiative became a priority for the government. The height of the Second World War signaled an increased demand for Mexican goods and services that was the impulse for an extraordinarily dynamic economy. Also in full swing was the Agencia Mexicana de Patentes y Marcas. At the beginning of 1946, representatives of an important New York law firm; Langer, Parry, Card & Langer arrived at his office and Javier Uhthoff accepted the offer to represent them and thus began a lasting and still lasting professional relationship that survives to this very day. Don Javier’s aspiration to promote contracts with foreign firms had become a reality, and, it might be added, in the most intense manner.
Two years later, in 1948, after the international conflict had come to an end, Don Javier personally contacted the firms that had their rights and industrial properties detained during the war years, and oversaw that each one of their patents and registered trademarks were restored. This same year, Bernardo Gómez Vega became part of the agency. Gómez Vega was an enigmatic character, before he joined the firm he was something of a professional student, and his work story included an interestingly diverse variety of employment from movie extra to chorus dancer. He was, as they say, a total bohemian.
But when he began to practice his profession as a lawyer he dedicated himself wholly to his work. Immediately before entering the agency, he worked as an intern at the General Bank of Capitalization, prior to receiving his law degree, in 1942. Four years later he would become a partner in the agency.
As a consequence of these changes, the agency was reconfigured and both partners decided on adopting the name, Javier Uhthoff y Compañía. This was the first step towards the manner in which the firm is structured today, one which meant that the responsibilities and administration would no longer rest on a single individual. In this same year, Alejandro Uhthoff Julvecourt, began his internship with the firm, where he would remain for the rest of his life.
Javier Uhthoff y Compañía becomes Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff.
In 1963, Alejandro was named a partner, which once again reconfigured the structure of the firm, adopting the name it carries today: Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff. In 1968, Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff, continued its grow. The correct decisions and actions taken by the partners, and the possibilities projected by the firm for its future, were the impulse to change their address and move to new offices.
On Hamburgo Street, in the middle of the Zona Rosa, at number 260, the firm erected a building tailor-made to its necessities. Alejandro Uhthoff Julvecourt and Bernardo Gómez Vega became the heads of the firm, along with Bjorn Vadillo and Alfredo Cortés, who together saw to all the details of the daily business in their direct relationship with the clients. It was during these years that Uhthoff, Gomez Vega & Uhthoff, S.C. slowly began its process of institutionalization.
In effect, the office began its period of transformation, and left behind its era when it was characterized as a family business. Decisions became the responsibility of each specific area and a formal integrated structure began to take hold, one that was manned by an increased number of lawyers and specialists, who were incorporated into the firm in order to meet the demand for services that attracted more and more clients.
With the passing of Don Javier and Don Alejandro, and the retirement of Don Bernardo, the partners with the most seniority, Robert Young, Manuel Soto, Mario Ponce, Javier Uhthoff, Horacio Rangel, Consuelo González and Carlos Uhthoff, formed a Board of Directors.
The new corporate structure gave direction and continuity to the affairs of the firm, and developed and defined the operation and perspectives for the future.
Since 2000, the structure of the office formally includes an area exclusively dedicated to Corporate Law. It offers a variety of services including, incorporation of companies, restructuring, mergers and maintenance of corporations and associations of all types, and related contracts. In addition, it also handles an infinite number of affairs that clients might require from this specialized field of law. If we live in an era today where competition brings specialization to the marketplace, Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff has a very clear set of objectives: to maintain itself as Mexico’s largest firm in the area of Intellectual Property and one of the most important in Latin America. How? By continuing to follow its highest priority: an unsurpassed excellence in client attention.
The company has taken on the reinforcement of the fields of operation where its competitiveness is nearly without equal, while at the same time, developing and progressing in other areas of law. Most of the lawyers who have set up important offices in industrial property in our country have at one time worked at Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff. The Board of Directors consequently must maintain a position of legal and technical excellence in the firm. For these reasons, monthly meetings at Hamburgo 260 take place, in which internal conferences address pending affairs and cover diverse aspects of intellectual property.
This is how Uhthoff, Gómez Vega & Uhthoff is facing the challenges of the new century. With flexibility that allows us to transform and continue growing, and to maintain our untarnished image in what interests us the most: attending our clients in the best possible manner. Because of this, our offices have diversified their services, and continually train its personnel; with this purpose in mind we broaden communication between our executives and clients, because of this, we imbed in our structure the harmony and well being of our employees, because in the end, they are the people that make success possible.