A company may pay for a platform's development, control its repository and sell the product without having answered an essential question: who can prove ownership of the rights in the code? The answer matters when licensing the software, raising capital, selling the business or acting against unauthorized copying.

In Mexico, registering a computer program with the National Copyright Institute, known as INDAUTOR, does not itself create copyright. Registration provides legal certainty and a record of the work and the ownership asserted, but it does not cure ambiguous contracts or transfer rights the applicant did not hold.

Before filing the form, identify the version to be registered, the people who took part in its creation and the documents showing why the economic rights belong to the author, a company or another person.

Is software protected without registration?

Mexico's Federal Copyright Law protects a work once it is fixed in a tangible medium, including an electronic medium. Recognition does not require registration or another formality. A program can therefore be protected before INDAUTOR issues a certificate.

The Public Copyright Registry serves a different purpose: it provides legal certainty and public notice of registered works, acts and documents. An entry creates a rebuttable presumption that the facts and acts it records are true, while preserving third-party rights.

The distinction has practical consequences. A certificate can help identify a work and support an ownership claim, but it does not replace the contract, employment relationship or chain of transfers explaining how the applicant obtained the rights.

What does copyright protect in a computer program?

The law defines a computer program as the original expression, in any form, language or code, of an organized set of instructions intended to make a computer or device perform a particular task or function. Protection covers operating and application software in both source-code and object-code form.

Since the amendment published on May 14, 2026, Article 102 expressly includes artificial-intelligence programs within the legal regime for computer programs. The amendment does not change Article 12: an author must be an individual.

Article 102 itself excludes computer or artificial-intelligence programs intended to cause harmful effects to other programs or equipment or that infringe third-party rights protected by the law.

Copyright protects the program's original expression. It does not protect the product idea, business method, system, process or abstract function. Nor does it turn third-party components, libraries, interfaces, content or databases into the applicant's property. If a product incorporates third-party material or open-source components, their origin and license terms require a separate review.

Author and economic-rights holder: what is the difference?

The author is always the individual who created the work. Moral rights remain attached to the author and are inalienable, not subject to limitation periods, nonwaivable and not subject to attachment. A company cannot be identified as the author; it may be identified as the economic-rights holder only when a legal rule or supporting document establishes that status.

Economic rights permit exploitation of the program or authorization of its reproduction, modification, distribution, rental and communication to the public. The holder may be the author, an heir or a person who acquired the rights under a valid title. A company can therefore be identified as the economic-rights holder when the applicable law or documents support that status.

Registration separates these two pieces of information. Article 170 of the Federal Copyright Law requires an entry to identify both the author and the economic-rights holder. It must also state, among other information, the work's title, its disclosure date and whether it is a commissioned work. Conflating the author with the rights holder can produce a certificate that does not reflect how the asset was actually created and acquired.

Who owns software created by founders, employees or outside developers?

If a founder created the program before the company was formed, or outside an employment or commissioned-work arrangement that allocates rights to the company, incorporation alone does not establish that the company acquired the software. The company should document the assignment or other legal basis under which it acquired the economic rights; if it received only a license, it should describe the license's scope rather than identify itself as the rights holder. If the legal basis is an assignment, it must be in writing, for consideration, and provide for proportional participation or fixed remuneration; for computer programs, the assignment term is not subject to Article 33's general limit.

For software and its documentation created by one or more employees in the performance of their duties or under the employer's instructions, Article 103 provides that the economic rights belong to the employer unless otherwise agreed. Employment documents and internal records should make the relevant duties, instructions and developed versions identifiable.

An independent developer is not automatically in the same position as an employee. For a work to qualify as commissioned, there must be a paid written agreement that clearly and precisely identifies the specific work, its characteristics and the terms of the commission; in case of doubt, the interpretation most favorable to the author prevails. Unless otherwise agreed, the person commissioning the work or producing it through paid collaboration holds the economic rights. Other transfers of economic rights and licenses must likewise be in writing; otherwise they are void as a matter of law.

Paying an invoice does not by itself describe which modules are included, whether the developer retained pre-existing components, what subcontractors contributed or which rights were transferred. Depending on the project, review:

  • who wrote each material part of the program and under what relationship;
  • which version, modules and documentation the agreement covers;
  • which pre-existing code the developer retains;
  • which third-party or open-source components were incorporated and under what license;
  • whether the transaction is a transfer or a license and its scope;
  • who may modify, distribute, sublicense and exploit the program;
  • how source code, documentation and required access will be delivered.

Registering the work and registering an agreement serve different functions. Acts or agreements transferring economic rights must be recorded with the Public Copyright Registry to be effective against third parties under Articles 32 and 163(V) of the law.

What should be organized before filing?

The filing package should match the software's actual development history. Practical preparation includes:

  1. identifying the title and exact version of the program to be submitted and whether it is being declared as an original or derivative work;
  2. naming the individuals who participated as authors;
  3. determining who will file and who will be identified as the economic-rights holder;
  4. gathering employment agreements, commissioned-work agreements, assignments or other documents supporting that ownership, together with licenses delimiting permissions to use the software;
  5. reviewing the roles of outside developers, subcontractors and coauthors;
  6. inventorying libraries, open-source code and other third-party components;
  7. preparing form RPDA-01 and any applicable attachments, the representation of the work, proof of payment and authority documents.

Repository history, delivery records, version identifiers and other technical records do not replace the relevant agreements or establish the entire chain of ownership by themselves, but they can help preserve the link between the deposited work and the product operated by the company.

Before submitting any file, verify that it contains no passwords, keys, personal data or other secrets that are not part of the work being registered. The submitted copy should correspond to the version identified in the application.

How is software registration filed with INDAUTOR in 2026?

The filing uses form RPDA-01, on which “Programa de cómputo” must be selected as the type of work. When the intended economic-rights holder is not the author, a document supporting that ownership must accompany the application. Legal entities and their representatives must also provide evidence of legal existence and authority when applicable.

At the time of publication, the INDARELÍN system remains subject to the suspension order published in Mexico's Official Gazette on March 6, 2026. The order temporarily suspended the system beginning February 18, 2026 and enabled filing by email, without eliminating in-person filing, until the corresponding order enabling the system is published.

While that measure remains in effect, a work-registration application is sent to registro.obras@cultura.gob.mx with form RPDA-01 signed by hand and scanned, together with the applicable attachments. The temporary order accepts the electronic copy of the work in PDF, MP3, MP4, PNG or JPG format, as appropriate; it rejects other formats, external-storage links and password-protected documents that cannot be reviewed, subject to its specific rules for multimedia and pseudonymous works.

The channel may change when INDAUTOR enables its system again. Before filing, review the official INDAUTOR-01-001 procedure sheet, the current form and fee, and any later order published in the Official Gazette.

What happens to the deposited copy and later versions?

The law restricts access to copies of deposited computer programs: copies may be obtained only with the economic-rights holder's authorization or under a court order. Even with that rule, applicants should avoid including operational credentials and secrets that are not needed to identify the work.

The certificate corresponds to the work and information submitted. If the program changes materially, incorporates new code or changes ownership, assess whether a new version, the relevant agreement or an available marginal annotation should be registered.

Questions to answer before registering software with INDAUTOR

  • Which specific program version will be registered, and how can it be identified?
  • Which individuals wrote the code or documentation?
  • Was the program created through employment or under a commissioned-development agreement?
  • Which documents show that the company holds the economic rights?
  • Does the program include pre-existing code, third-party components or open-source licenses?
  • Should a rights-transfer agreement also be recorded so that it is effective against third parties?
  • Was the code created before or after the company was formed, and what document transferred it to the company?

Answering these questions before filing helps the certificate describe the asset the company actually owns. If ownership is still unclear, review and document the chain of rights before submitting the application.

Official sources

Protection upon fixation and without formalities, as well as the applicable exclusions, are supported by Articles 5, 6 and 14 of the current Federal Copyright Law. Authorship, moral rights and economic-rights ownership were reviewed under Articles 12, 18, 19, 24 and 25. Transfers and licenses are addressed in Articles 30, 31, 32 and 33; commissioned works in Articles 83 and 83 Bis; and the specific rules for computer programs in Articles 101, 102, 103 and 106. The Registry's function, recordable agreements, restricted access to copies, the statutory presumption and required entry data correspond, respectively, to Articles 162, 163(V), 164, 168 and 170. The requirement of a written, clear and precise agreement to establish a commissioned work was checked against decision 29170 in the Federal Judicial Weekly. The declarative nature of entries is also addressed in Article 59 of the Regulations to the Federal Copyright Law. General filing requirements appear in the official INDAUTOR-01-001 procedure sheet, and the current temporary channel derives from the order published in the Official Gazette on March 6, 2026.

This content is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Ownership, scope of rights and filing documents depend on how the program was developed, its agreements, its components and the rules in effect when the application is submitted.