Employee Invention Ownership in Nepal: Who Owns What Your Staff Invent?
Employee invention ownership in Nepal: how the PDTA treats inventorship, the assignment clause your contracts need, and the DOI recordal that secures the chain.
Your engineer solves the problem your company has been paying salaries to solve — and then the question arrives: is the patent yours or theirs? In Nepal the answer is written in the paperwork, not in the employment relationship.
This guide sets out how employee invention ownership works under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 BS (1965) — the PDTA — and the documents that put the invention cleanly in the company's name before it matters.
In short
Employee invention ownership in Nepal rests on documentation, not assumption: a patent application names the inventor, and where the applicant is not the inventor, the basis of the company's right — an assignment or employment arrangement — must be clear on the file. There is no automatic employer-takes-all rule; fix the gap with written invention assignment clauses and record transfers at the Department of Industry.
Employee invention ownership in Nepal starts on the application form
A Nepalese patent application on Schedule 1(a) must state the inventor's details — name, address and occupation. Where the applicant is someone other than the inventor, the Department of Industry expects the basis of that applicant's right to be evident: an assignment, or the employment arrangement that produced the invention, travelling with the filing.
That structure answers the ownership question procedurally. The Department does not adjudicate who deserves the invention; it asks whether the file shows how the applicant came to hold it. A clean assignment answers the question in one document. Silence invites queries at best — and a patent registered on a shaky chain is a patent that weakens exactly when you try to licence, sell or enforce it.
The default rules, right by right
Employers coming from other jurisdictions expect a work-for-hire doctrine. Nepal's statutes distribute ownership differently depending on the right involved, which is why the drafting work differs for each:
| Right | Nepalese default | What secures the company's position |
|---|---|---|
| Patent (PDTA) | Inventor named on Schedule 1(a); applicant must show its basis of right | Written assignment or employment arrangement on the file |
| Copyright (Act 2059) | The human author owns first — no work-for-hire doctrine | Present-tense written assignment from the creator |
| Trade secrets | Contract only — the proposed Industrial Property Bill would add statutory protection | NDAs and confidentiality clauses, drafted before access is granted |
The employment contract fix
The preventive document is an invention clause in every employment contract, drafted before the inventive work starts:
- Present assignment: the employee assigns inventions made in the scope of employment — not a promise to assign later, which leaves the transfer unexecuted
- Future-works capture: inventions arising during the term that relate to the company's business, so each project does not need a fresh signature
- Disclosure and cooperation duties: the employee tells the company what was made and signs whatever filings, registrations or confirmations are needed — including after departure
- Alignment with the copyright regime: since moral rights under the Copyright Act stay with the creator, the clause respects attribution while assigning economic rights
Auditing the teams you already have
Existing staff are the harder file. The practical sequence: inventory the inventions and filings the company already holds; identify every relationship — employees, consultants, departed engineers — without a signed assignment; execute retroactive assignments now, while goodwill makes signatures easy; and store one chain-of-title file per invention. A departed inventor who will not sign years later is a risk that compounds at every renewal and every transaction.
Recording the transfer at the Department of Industry
Where a patent is already registered — or an assignment happens mid-term — the transfer should be recorded on the register. The recordal of an assignment costs NPR 5,000 for a patent (NPR 3,000 for a design, NPR 2,000 for a trademark) under the current fee schedule, which makes register hygiene nearly free compared with the disputes a stale register invites. Renewals and correspondence route through the agent of record, so the register should always point at the true owner before the next 35-day renewal window arrives.
The practitioner's rule of thumb
Employee invention ownership in Nepal is decided on filing day: the application either carries its chain of title or it does not. Draft the clauses before the inventive work starts, audit the relationships you inherited, and record every transfer as it happens — the NPR-denominated paperwork is trivial next to the value of a patent whose ownership nobody can question.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.