Brand Screening for Investment in Nepal: Checking the Trademarks Before the Cheque
Brand screening for investment in Nepal: verifying the target's trademark ownership, renewals, class coverage and use evidence before the deal prices the brand.
A Nepalese business's brand is usually its most valuable intangible — and the least verified line in a deal. Investors price the name, the outlets, the recognition; the register, meanwhile, may show a different owner, lapsed renewals, or classes that never covered what the company actually sells.
Brand screening for investment in Nepal is a fixed, cheap exercise: a register read, a renewal check, a use-evidence scan. It should be finished before the term sheet, because every finding it produces is a price point.
In short
Screening a Nepalese target's brand IP before investing means verifying five things against the Department of Industry's records: that the registered owner matches the entity selling (unrecorded assignments are the classic defect); that every registration is alive (7-year terms, renewals inside the 35-day window, NPR 4,500 per class in grace); that the registered classes cover the revenue (single-class filings mean coverage is deliberate, not assumed); that use evidence exists (a mark unused for a year invites cancellation); and that no conflicting or squatting applications are sitting in the Bulletin. Each check costs a search; the ones skipped cost the deal.
The brand screening checks, in order
The order matters as much as the list: ownership first, because every other check presumes the seller can sell; liveness second, because a dead right reprices to zero; then coverage, use and conflicts, which convert findings into price adjustments. None of the five requires the target's cooperation beyond document access — most run on public records.
| Check | What you are looking for | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Owner of record | Registered owner = the entity in the deal | DOI register, certificates |
| Liveness | Renewals paid; terms current; no grace-lapse cancellations | Register entries, renewal dates |
| Class coverage | Registered classes match the revenue lines | Certificates vs. the business model |
| Use evidence | Real trade use: labels, invoices, listings, ads | The target's records and the market |
| Conflicts and squatters | Pending similar applications, prior cancellations | Bulletin records, watch data |
Owner of record: the defect most deals find
Nepalese businesses change shape — proprietorships become companies, brands move between group entities — and the register rarely follows. A certificate still naming a founder personally, or an old company since renamed, means the deal's seller does not legally own the asset being priced. The cure exists and is cheap: assignment recordal at NPR 2,000 per mark, record changes at NPR 1,000 — but it must be done before closing, and the unrecorded history itself is a finding: if the chain was informal this once, it probably was before too.
Liveness and the renewal trail
Every Nepalese trademark runs 7 years from registration and renews inside a 35-day window, with a 6-month grace at NPR 4,500 per class before automatic cancellation. The screen walks each mark's renewal history: a mark renewed on time is a managed asset; a mark that lapsed and was refiled tells a story about discipline; a mark inside grace right now is a negotiation item — and in a first-to-file system, a lapse makes the name available to anyone, including a competitor, with no revival.
The same logic runs on the target's other rights: designs at 5-year terms, patents on annual maintenance of NPR 5,000–7,500 per year. Dead rights are not automatically disqualifying — but they must be priced as what they are.
Class coverage is deliberate in Nepal
Because Nepal files one class per application, a target's coverage says what it chose to protect — and what it did not. A restaurant group holding only Class 43 has no registered protection over its packaged products in Class 30; an exporter with only Class 30 has no protection over its retail services in Class 35. Map the revenue lines against the certificates, class by class, and price the gaps: each missing class is a filing the company must now make — with its own search, examination and 90-day exposure to opposition.
Use, conflicts and the final read
The use check is the target's forward defence: a registration not used for a year can be cancelled by anyone, and an acquirer inherits that vulnerability along with the asset. Labels, dated invoices, listings and campaigns — the evidence trail the site's proof-of-use guide describes — is what turns the registration from a certificate into a defensible position.
The conflicts check closes the screen: a watch over the Bulletin for the target's names, in both scripts, reveals pending applications by competitors or squatters — each one a 90-day opposition window someone must now manage. Run the whole screen before the term sheet; the findings reprice the deal more often than the brand did.
Want this handled for your brand?
IP Watch monitors new trademark publications in Nepal and alerts you to potentially conflicting marks — with the context needed to review them.
This article is general information, not legal advice.