--- title: "Carnitas Michoacán Secures U.S. Certification Mark: What It Means" description: Michoacán's Carnitas certification mark is now registered in the U.S., protecting its distinct preparation while clarifying what businesses can claim. image: https://www.segarraip.com/hubfs/carnitas.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/michoac%C3%A1n-just-registered-its-carnitas-in-the-u.s.-heres-what-that-seal-does-and-doesnt-own#main-content) [![](https://www.segarraip.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Segarra%20IP.Icon.png?width=200&height=100&name=Segarra%20IP.Icon.png)](https://www.segarraip.com) - [Trademark Services](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) - About Show submenu for About - [About Pablo](https://www.segarraip.com/about-pablo-segarra) - [Speaking](https://www.segarraip.com/speaking) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Ultimate Trademark Guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) - [BLOG](https://www.segarraip.com/writing) - [Contact](https://www.segarraip.com/contact) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Trademark Services](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) - About Show submenu for About - [About Pablo](https://www.segarraip.com/about-pablo-segarra) - [Speaking](https://www.segarraip.com/speaking) - Resources Show submenu for Resources - [Ultimate Trademark Guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) - [BLOG](https://www.segarraip.com/writing) - [Contact](https://www.segarraip.com/contact) - [Get A Free Trademark Review](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) [Get A Free Trademark Review](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-services) [All posts](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/all) October 4, 2026 # Carnitas Michoacán Secures U.S. Certification Mark: What It Means ![Picture of Pablo Segarra, Esq.](https://www.segarraip.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PabloWritingCover.png?width=50&name=PabloWritingCover.png) By  [Pablo Segarra, Esq.](https://www.segarraip.com/segarraip-blog/author/pablo-segarra-esq)  ·  6 minute read Culture + Ownership / Food & Beverage / Pablo Segarra Latino food founders, read this before you change your menu. On September 29, the USPTO registered the Carnitas Michoacán seal as a certification mark owned by the State of Michoacán. Headlines in Mexico say the dish is now protected in the United States. The registration protects something narrower than that, and the difference decides who gets to use what. | 8466608 U.S. Registration No. for the Carnitas Michoacán certification mark, registered Sept. 29, 2026, owned by Michoacán's Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico. | | --- | The record is short and specific. The [USPTO registration](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99412962) is owned by the Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico del Estado de Michoacán, the state's economic development agency. It covers one thing, "carnitas," and it certifies that they were prepared in a distinct manner known to come from municipalities in Michoacán. The mark is a design: a red circle with a pig's head and an orange butterfly, and the word CARNITAS is disclaimed, meaning the state claims no exclusive right in it. Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla told reporters that "la protección del nombre se extiende hasta Estados Unidos," [per Excélsior](https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/blinda-michoacan-autenticidad-carnitas-marca-logra-registro-oficial-estados-unidos). Here's my position: this is a smart, overdue move by a government doing what most cultural communities never do, which is put the value of a tradition into a form someone can actually control. But it protects a seal, not a dish, and the taquero in Chicago who calls his carnitas "estilo Michoacán" isn't the target. The business that slaps the state's seal on a tray it never earned is. | Sept 29 U.S. registration date | 6 Businesses certified so far, all in Michoacán | 1 yr Term of each free, renewable authorization | Class A Certification class for the goods | | --- | --- | --- | --- | ## What does a certification mark actually do? | **A certification mark tells buyers that a product meets a standard set by the mark's owner, such as where it came from or how it was made.** Under the Lanham Act, the owner doesn't sell the product. It sets the standard, authorizes others who meet it, and polices the seal. Anyone who uses the seal without authorization risks an infringement claim. People who make the product without the seal are outside its reach. | | --- | The federal definition is in [15 U.S.C. § 1127](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1127): a mark used by someone other than its owner, with the owner's permission, to certify origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality or other characteristics. Think of the seal on a bag of coffee that tells you the beans are from a particular region. The farm doesn't own the seal; the body that sets the rules does. Michoacán built the operating side before the U.S. registration landed. In an October 3 statement, the state agency said six businesses in Morelia, Quiroga and Tacámbaro are certified, including Carnitas Cui Cui and El Rey de las Carnitas, that the process involves roughly four hours of cooking, and that the authorization is free, valid for one year and renewable if the business keeps following the usage rules, [per the Sedeco communiqué](https://imnmexico.com/comunicado-sedeco-209-2026/). The program runs through an [official state site](https://carnitasmichoacan.gob.mx/). | A trademark covers a commercial use for specific goods. It doesn't cover a dish, a recipe or a region's pride. | | --- | ## Does this mean nobody in the U.S. can sell "Michoacán-style" carnitas? | **No.** The registration covers the seal as a whole, and the state disclaimed the word "carnitas." Describing where a style of cooking comes from is generally fair, especially when the words are used in their ordinary sense. The risk starts when a business copies the seal, a confusingly similar circle-and-pig design, or language that tells buyers the food is certified by Michoacán when it isn't. | | --- | I want to be careful here, because the headlines got ahead of the paperwork. Some coverage suggested that only products made with the original process may now carry the name. What the U.S. record shows is narrower: a protected design that certifies a standard. A word mark for the phrase CARNITAS MICHOACÁN, by itself, isn't what was registered. That distinction matters to a lot of real businesses. The USPTO record already shows taquerías that built names around the state long before this registration. They include a renewed registration for [EST. 1977 CARNITAS MICHOACAN RESTAURANT](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn86494266) and a renewed registration for [ESTILO MICHOACAN](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn85023279) held by an Illinois restaurant company. A pending application for [CARNITAS TARASCOS MICHOACÁN](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99810264) for meat products has an open office action. These are restaurant and food businesses that built value under names tied to place, and the new seal doesn't erase what they built. | What the registration controls | What it doesn't control | | --- | --- | | The red-circle seal with the pig and butterfly design, as registered | The word "carnitas" (disclaimed in the record) | | Use of the seal on carnitas to signal certification | A family recipe, a cooking method or a style of preparation | | Who gets authorized, under the state's rules | Honest, descriptive references to where a style comes from | | Look-alike seals that could confuse buyers about certification | Restaurant names that don't suggest the state certified them | ## Who owns the value now? This is the part of the story I care about most. For generations, Michoacán carnitas built value the way culture usually does: through cooks, families, word of mouth and migration. That value moved north with the people. Nobody filed anything, so nobody could set terms. Now there's an owner, and it's a public agency on the side of the producers in the state. That's a rare outcome. When a piece of Latino culture gets commercialized, the usual pattern is that someone else files first, often a company with no connection to the tradition. Here the community's own government filed, using the U.S. system the way large brands do. I'd call that a model for other regional foods, from mezcal-producing towns to Puerto Rican pastelillo makers. The culture spread on its own. Ownership only showed up when someone filed. Ownership also comes with obligations. Under [15 U.S.C. § 1064(5)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1064), a certification registration can be cancelled if the owner doesn't control the mark, makes or sells the certified goods itself, lets the seal be used for purposes other than certifying, or discriminately refuses to certify goods that meet the standard. Michoacán can't hand the seal to friends and deny it to competitors who meet the rules. That's the bargain: the seal is valuable because the rules are public and applied evenly. ## The honest complication The strongest counterargument is that a seal means little in a market where it isn't used. Every certified business named in the October statement operates in Michoacán. A U.S. registration is most useful when products bearing the seal are actually sold here, and building that pipeline (exporting cooked pork, licensing U.S. producers, or certifying restaurants abroad) is a heavier lift than winning a registration. Federal law also lets anyone seek cancellation of a registration that has never been used in U.S. commerce, once three years have passed since it registered. That doesn't make the registration symbolic. It gives the state a tool to stop look-alike seals now and a framework for authorizing U.S. businesses later. But the people who will decide whether it means anything are the producers and the operators who choose to meet the standard and carry the seal. My prediction, and I'll label it as one: the first real test won't be a lawsuit. It will be whether a U.S. restaurant group applies for authorization. ## If you sell carnitas in the U.S., here's what I'd check | 1 | Your logo, not your menu. If your signage or packaging uses a red circle, a pig's head, a butterfly or anything that reads like an official seal, compare it against the registered design. That's where the conflict risk sits. | | --- | --- | | 2 | Your claims. "Estilo Michoacán" describes a style. "Certified Michoacán" or "auténticas de Michoacán, certificadas" makes a claim about a standard you may not meet. Keep your words honest and specific. | | 3 | Your own name. If you built your restaurant around the state's name, find out whether you own a registration for it, what it covers, and whether your next location, product line or frozen-food deal falls inside that coverage. | | 4 | The opportunity. If you actually follow the traditional method and want the seal, the program is run by the state. Before you apply, know what you'd be agreeing to: rules, audits and a one-year term. | | The headline said the dish is protected. The paperwork says the seal is. That's the part you can build on. | | --- | Back to the governor's line about the name's protection reaching the U.S. It does reach, but only as far as the seal. For the cooks who carried this tradition north, nothing they make in their own kitchens just became someone else's. For the brands built on that tradition, the lesson is the one Michoacán just demonstrated: value you don't put on paper is value you can't set terms for. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is Carnitas Michoacán a trademark or a certification mark? It's a certification mark. The owner, Michoacán's economic development agency, sets the standard and authorizes others to use the seal; it doesn't sell carnitas under it. ### Can a U.S. restaurant use the Carnitas Michoacán seal? Only with authorization from the mark's owner. Authorization is tied to meeting the state's standard, and according to the state it is free and renews annually. ### Is this the same as a denominación de origen? Not in the U.S. The U.S. generally protects geographic food names through certification and collective marks rather than a separate appellation system, so the registration's scope is what governs here. | Segarra IP PLLC · Trademark Clarity Audit Built your brand on a place name? Know what you actually own. [Start with the trademark registration guide](https://www.segarraip.com/trademark-registration-guide) | | --- | ## Sources | [USPTO TSDR, Carnitas Michoacán certification mark, Serial No. 99412962, Reg. No. 8466608](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99412962) | | --- | | [Sedeco Michoacán, Comunicado 209/2026 (Oct. 3, 2026), via IMNMéxico](https://imnmexico.com/comunicado-sedeco-209-2026/) | | [Excélsior, "Blinda Michoacán la autenticidad de sus carnitas" (Oct. 1, 2026)](https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/blinda-michoacan-autenticidad-carnitas-marca-logra-registro-oficial-estados-unidos) | | [Carnitas Michoacán official program site](https://carnitasmichoacan.gob.mx/) | | [15 U.S.C. § 1127, definitions (Cornell LII)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1127) | | [15 U.S.C. § 1064, cancellation (Cornell LII)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1064) | | [USPTO TSDR, EST. 1977 CARNITAS MICHOACAN RESTAURANT, Serial No. 86494266](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn86494266) | | [USPTO TSDR, ESTILO MICHOACAN, Serial No. 85023279](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn85023279) | | [USPTO TSDR, CARNITAS TARASCOS MICHOACÁN, Serial No. 99810264](https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn99810264) | Pablo Segarra, Esq. is a trademark attorney and the founder of Segarra IP PLLC, a federal trademark firm for Latino founders and creators behind growing brands. General information, not legal advice. 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