Design Assignment in Nepal: Transferring a Registered Design and Recording It
Design assignment in Nepal: the written deed, the NPR 3,000 recordal at the DOI, why recordal matters more under the 15-year ceiling, and assignment versus licence.
Registered designs change hands more than any other Nepalese IP right: a mould sold with a product line, a factory relocation, a licensing arrangement converted into a sale, a founder's retirement. Each transfer is only half done until the register at the Department of Industry says so.
Design assignment in Nepal is a writing requirement, a filing and a fee — NPR 3,000 in current practice — and the 15-year ceiling makes the timing arithmetic unusually concrete.
In short
A design assignment in Nepal must be in writing, describing the registered design and the parties, and is completed by recordal at the DOI — NPR 3,000 per design in current practice, with the deed, certificate, proprietor papers and POA where an agent files. Recordal is what makes the transfer effective against third parties, and it matters more for designs than for other rights: the 5+5+5 term means every unrecorded year burns value the assignment was priced on. Renewals, enforcement and licensing all run against the owner of record.
Design assignment in Nepal: when registered looks change hands
Designs are the IP right most embedded in physical assets, so they transfer with the assets: the moulds, the tooling, the product line, the factory. Nepalese practice sees the recurring patterns — a product line sold to a competitor, a manufacturer and its registered packaging looks acquired together, a designer's studio winding down and its registrations moving to the client, a proprietorship's designs folded into a newly incorporated company.
Each pattern ends at the same place: the register. The DOI's record is what every downstream actor — a licensee, an enforcement channel, a diligence team, the renewal clerk — relies on for ownership.
The assignment must be in writing — and complete
The deed is the contract of transfer: parties identified as they appear on the register, the registered design identified, consideration recited, and the scope stated. Completeness is where assignments go wrong in practice. Does the transfer cover all the representations and variants registered under the design, or only some? Do the moulds, tooling and source files pass under the same instrument or a separate one? Are improvements — the next-generation look the assignor's workshop already developed — inside the sale or left behind to be re-sold?
These are deal questions with register consequences: the recordal will record what the deed says, and the deed's gaps become the assignee's limitations.
Recording the assignment at the DOI
Draft the deed against the register
Names, addresses and the design's details copied exactly from the register extract — not from the parties' correspondence.
Assemble the file
The deed, the registration certificate, both parties' identity or corporate papers, and a Power of Attorney where an agent files — notarised for foreign parties.
File with the fee
The assignment recordal fee for designs is NPR 3,000 in current practice, paid with the filing; keep the receipt, which dates the request.
Follow through to the register
The recordal is complete when the register shows the new proprietor — confirm in writing and pull the extract that proves it.
Hand over the calendar
The renewal anniversaries — years 5 and 10, each with its 35-day window — transfer with the design. The assignee's first act is diarising them.
Why recordal matters more under the 5+5+5 term
Every row runs against the owner of record. An assignment executed but not recorded leaves the assignee enforcing, renewing and licensing a design the register still attributes to the assignor — and under a 15-year ceiling, every year spent unpicking that gap is a year of term the assignment's price assumed.
| Event | What the owner of record must supply |
|---|---|
| First renewal (year 5) | Schedule 2(e) filing, certificate, fee — NPR 1,000/year for the second term |
| Second renewal (year 10) | Same, at NPR 2,000/year for the final term |
| Enforcement against a copy | Certificate and register extract showing standing |
| Licence to a manufacturer | Written licence and recordal; the licensee needs the chain clean |
| Sale or financing | A register an acquirer's diligence can trust |
The value arithmetic of the remaining term
Design assignments are priced on a countdown, and both sides should do the arithmetic explicitly. A design in year 2 has a full life ahead: initial term running, two renewals available, up to thirteen protected years. A design in year 4 is one careless calendar from its first renewal. A design past year 10 is in its final term — still enforceable, but approaching the ceiling at year 15 when the look enters the public domain and no filing brings it back.
Buyers inherit the renewal calendar along with the term; sellers who let a renewal lapse before closing have sold a smaller asset than they negotiated. The deed, the recordal and the diarised anniversaries are one package.
Assignment versus licence for designs
The licence is the alternative worth pricing before the assignment is signed: ownership retained, revenue through royalties, term risk staying with the owner. Nepalese manufacturers commonly operate under design licences — the look stays with the studio or brand house, the factory produces under agreed quality terms. The trade-offs run along control, duration and the 15-year ceiling: an assignee buys what remains of the term outright, while a licensee pays for access and the owner keeps the strategy. Either way, the DOI register should reflect the arrangement — assignments by recordal at NPR 3,000, licences by their own recordal route — because the register is where every later dispute begins reading.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.