Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and IP Filing in Nepal

Track one: the FDI approval path

FITTA governs foreign investment, administered by the Department of Industry — with larger projects (NPR 6 billion and above, national pride and PPP projects) routed to the Investment Board of Nepal. The path runs: sector check against the negative list → application through the DoI's automated portal → approval → incorporation at the Office of the Company Registrar → tax and industry registrations → capital inflow through banking channels → recording with Nepal Rastra Bank.

FITTA's guarantees are the reason the paperwork matters: protection against nationalisation, and repatriation of capital, dividends and sale proceeds — provided the investment came in through banking channels and the recording formalities were completed at entry.

• Approval: DoI (below NPR 6bn) / IBN (above, and pride/PPP projects)
• Incorporation at the OCR; PAN/VAT, social security, local registrations follow
• Capital through banking channels; NRB recording is what unlocks repatriation later

Track two: IP is national here — plan for it

The IP track has a structural headline: Nepal is outside both the Madrid System and the PCT. An international registration does not extend here; a foreign patent application does not cover here. Protection requires national filings — trademarks through a local agent under a notarised Power of Attorney, patents on Schedule 1(a) with the technical-committee examination to follow.

The saving grace is Paris Convention priority: a Nepalese trademark application filed within 6 months of the home filing (12 months for patents) claims the earlier date. That window is the bridge between an investor's existing global portfolio and Nepalese protection — and it is shorter than most investment timelines feel.

• No Madrid, no PCT: national filings only, via a local agent
• Priority windows: 6 months (trademarks), 12 months (patents) from the home filing
• First-to-file: local squatters are a real risk for brands that enter the market before the register

The sequence that works

The two tracks interleave. Done in the right order, each step protects the next.

1. 1

   Before committing capital: clear the brand

   Screen the brand against Nepal's published records — including transliterations — before the investment announcement, not after the signage is ordered.

   Trademark Word Search
2. 2

   At (or before) approval: file the marks

   File the core classes nationally — claiming Paris priority where the home filing is fresh. Filing before launch closes the first-to-file gap.

3. 3

   At incorporation: align the applicant

   Decide whether marks sit with the foreign parent or the Nepali subsidiary — and record assignments later if the structure changes (Section 21D, NPR 2,000 per mark).

4. 4

   At launch: start the watch

   A market entry is when imitation risk peaks. Bulletin monitoring from day one keeps the opposition window usable.

   Trademark Watch service
5. 5

   Ongoing: renewals and recordals

   Renewals per class every 7 years, and every corporate change — name, address, ownership — recorded so the register follows the investment structure.

The IP points FDI advisers most often miss

Investment counsel and IP counsel see different parts of the elephant, and the seams show in recurring ways. Brand licences into the Nepali subsidiary should be recorded (Section 21D) to stand up in disputes. Franchise and technology-transfer arrangements interact with both FITTA and IP registration. And domain-and-brand timing: in a first-to-file market, the local agent or partner negotiating today can be the applicant of record for your brand tomorrow unless the filings are placed deliberately.

None of this is exotic — it is sequencing. The investors who lose marks in Nepal are rarely refused protection; they simply filed late.