Design Disclosure at Exhibitions in Nepal: Show the Product, Lose the Novelty
Showing a product at a Kathmandu exhibition can destroy design novelty. When to file, how exhibition disclosure is treated, and the precautions to take.
The stall is booked, the samples are printed, the product looks better than anything the competitor will bring. Then the question nobody asked in the planning meeting: has this design been filed yet?
Industrial design rights in Nepal stand on novelty — and an exhibition is one of the fastest ways to spend it.
In short
Design disclosure at an exhibition is a novelty decision, not a marketing one. A Nepalese industrial design registration protects a look that is new; displaying the product publicly before the Schedule 1(b) filing is made can put the design into the state of prior art that later defeats its own registration. The safe order is file first, exhibit second — the design route is fast (weeks to months) and cheap (NPR 1,000 to file, NPR 7,000 to register) — and where exhibiting early is unavoidable, control what is shown, photograph what was disclosed, and treat every public appearance as a date that will be examined later.
Why the exhibition date matters
Sections 12–15 of the PDTA protect the visual features of a product — shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation — and the Department's refusal grounds are narrow under Section 14: an earlier registration, public morality, national interest, or prestige. What the statute's structure adds is the novelty premise: a design is protectable as new, and novelty is measured against what is already known.
A public exhibition puts the look in front of the trade — buyers, competitors, photographers, catalogues. Once the design has been shown, the argument that it is new weakens, and a competitor who saw the stall can move fast: the design route is the fastest right in the system, which cuts both ways.
File first, exhibit second
The design filing is deliberately light: Schedule 1(b) with four sets of representations, particulars stating what is claimed, and modest fees — NPR 1,000 at application and NPR 7,000 at registration in current practice. Examination is formality-plus, checking the Section 14 grounds and earlier registrations; on acceptance the design registers and publishes, with objections lying within 35 days of publication.
Because the route runs in weeks to months — substantially faster than a patent — the disciplined sequence is achievable for almost any trade fair calendar: file, then exhibit. The registration date anchors the 5-year term (renewable twice, 5 years each, to a 15-year ceiling), and the exhibition becomes a launch event rather than a disclosure event.
When disclosure at the exhibition is unavoidable
Sometimes the trade calendar cannot wait for the register. If the product must be shown before filing, the exposure should be managed, not merely accepted.
- Show less than you sell — display the range's presence without revealing every variant; the Department protects what is depicted in the filing, and the same logic protects you at the stall
- Photograph everything you showed, with dates — the disclosure record cuts both ways: it is evidence against you, and it is the document that lets counsel assess exactly how much novelty is left
- Brief the stall team — no technical sheets with the design particulars, no close-up photography permissions, and a note of every sample that left the stand
- File within days, not months — the shorter the gap between disclosure and filing, the smaller the window a competitor has to exploit the published look
The decision table
| Situation | Move |
|---|---|
| Fair is 2+ months away, design final | File now (NPR 1,000 + NPR 7,000); exhibit under cover of the filing |
| Fair is sooner than filing can complete | File on Schedule 1(b) before the doors open; examination catches up |
| Already exhibited, nothing filed | Assess the disclosure record immediately; file fast and evaluate what remains protectable |
| Competitor photographed your unreleased look | Same as above — and document the taking for any later dispute |
Where design meets trademark at the fair
Exhibitions raise the trademark question in parallel: the brand name on the banner and the label on the samples are exposed the same way the design is. The name's protection runs on the trademark register — 7-year terms, NPR 1,000 to file per class — and a fair is exactly where lookalike applications are born, since every competitor in the hall can photograph the stand.
Practical businesses file the design and the core trademark before the first expo of the season, then watch the Bulletin through the fair cycle — accepted applications publish roughly monthly, opening a 90-day opposition window that is the cheapest moment to stop a copycat filing.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.