Trading Name Protection in Nepal: Your DBA Is Not a Trademark
Trading name protection in Nepal stops at registration — why a company name or DBA gives no exclusive rights, and what actually protects the name you trade under.
A Kathmandu business registers its firm, prints the invoices, builds a decade of goodwill under the trading name — then discovers another company using something very similar, lawfully. The registration certificate in the drawer feels like protection. It is not.
This is one of the most common and most expensive misunderstandings in Nepalese business practice: the difference between the name you are allowed to trade under and the name you can stop others from using.
In short
Trading name protection in Nepal is weaker than most owners assume: registering a company or firm name authorises you to trade under it, but grants no exclusive rights — those come only from trademark registration at the Department of Industry, class by class, under the PDTA. A registered mark gives class-wide exclusivity, standing to oppose later applications and grounds for infringement action; an unregistered trading name has very limited protection in Nepal's first-to-file system. The practical order is therefore: clear the name, register the company, and file the trademark before marketing spend makes the name valuable.
Two registers, two different protections
Nepal's business name sits on one register and its trademark on another. Company and firm registration — the process every Nepalese business completes at incorporation — records the entity's name and authorises trading under it. Trademark registration is a separate application at the Department of Industry under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965), examined class by class against earlier marks.
The registers do not talk to each other. Nothing in the company-registration process searches the trademark register, and a registered company name can infringe someone's registered trademark the moment it is used on goods or in marketing.
What each registration actually gives you in Nepal
The asymmetry matters most in disputes. When two similar names meet, the registered trademark is the document that decides; years of unregistered use rarely are.
| Instrument | What it gives | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Company / firm registration | Legal existence; the right to operate under the registered name | No exclusivity — other firms may hold similar names |
| Trading name / DBA in use | Market identity, goodwill, some protection against passing off in clear imitation cases | No registration, no class-wide rights, weak standing in a first-to-file system |
| Registered trademark (DOI) | Exclusive class-by-class rights, a certificate, standing to oppose and enforce | Nothing outside the registered classes; it does not watch or enforce itself |
Why first-to-file punishes the unregistered name
Trademark registration in Nepal follows a first-to-file logic: the application date, not first use, creates the priority that counts in conflicts. A business that has traded for years on an unregistered name generally has a weaker position than a later filer who registered first.
The exposure is concrete. A supplier, distributor, employee or competitor who likes your trading name can apply for it in the classes that matter to your business — and, once registered, can lawfully require you to stop. Nepal's register also shows a recurring pattern of preemptive filings by parties with no trading presence of their own.
Checking a trading name before you commit
The sequence that works: clear the name, register the entity, file the mark — in that order, with the filing before any public branding.
Search the trademark register, not just the company index
Screen the proposed name against 71,000+ published Bulletin records — exact spellings, phonetic variants and Devanagari transliterations in your classes.
Read the hits as a businessperson
A same-class hit for overlapping goods is a conflict; a hit in an unrelated class may not be. What matters is the goods wording, not the class number alone.
File the trademark before the launch, not after
There is no requirement of prior use — a mark can be filed on the intention to use. The NPR 1,000-per-class application fee is trivial next to the marketing spend it protects.
Using a trading name you have not registered
Sometimes the gap is discovered late — the business has traded for years under an unregistered name. The honest position: protection exists but is limited, best characterised as passing-off-style arguments against clear imitation, and much weaker than a registration. The practical response is to file immediately, before a competitor does, and to build the dated use evidence — sales under the name, advertising, invoices — that supports any later dispute.
One caution: if someone else has already filed your name, the window for opposing their application is the roughly 90 days from its Bulletin publication. Monitoring the Bulletin is how a late-discovered problem stays a manageable one.
The housekeeping that keeps a trading name defensible
A trading name becomes a defensible brand the day it becomes a registered trademark. Until then, it is a goodwill story with a legal hole in it — and in Nepal, competitors read that hole precisely.
- Register the mark in the exact form used in trade — including the Devanagari version if you trade bilingually
- Keep the registered owner's name aligned with the entity that actually trades; record changes cost NPR 1,000
- Use the mark consistently — a mark unused within one year of registration invites a cancellation inquiry under Section 18C
- Renew on the 7-year cycle; a lapsed registration returns the name to the open market
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.