Import House Brand Portfolio Strategy in Nepal: Own Names, Not Just Agencies
Import house brand portfolio strategy in Nepal: which names to register, distributorship IP clauses, squatter risk, and the renewal cost of a multi-name house.
Kathmandu's trading houses distribute dozens of brands — and the commonest portfolio mistake is assuming the brands on the shelves are the brands the house owns. Most of them belong to the foreign principals. The names the house actually owns are its own: the trading name, the house brands, the private labels.
An import house brand portfolio is therefore two different exercises: protecting what is yours, and handling what is not — carefully.
In short
An import house brand portfolio in Nepal has two layers: the house's own marks — trading name and private labels, filed in Class 35 for the distribution business plus the classes of goods handled — and the principals' marks, used under licence and never registered by the distributor without consent. The discipline: register your own names early (first-to-file means squatters win ties), paper the distributorship's trademark clauses, and keep every registration renewed at NPR 3,500 per class per 7-year term.
The most valuable brand a trading house owns is its own
Distribution is a service — bringing goods to the Nepali market — and it sits in Class 35 under the Nice Classification. The house's trading name, registered in Class 35, is what suppliers, banks and buyers all reference; it is also the asset that survives any single agency being lost.
Beyond the trading name, the house's own creations deserve their own filings: private labels it has built for the market, sub-brands for product families it controls. These are the marks whose value compounds — and, in a first-to-file system, the ones a squatter can take if left unregistered.
Principal brands: use them, never assume them
A distributor's right to use a foreign principal's brand comes from the appointment agreement, not from the market. Two rules keep that relationship clean. First, use the mark as the principal's guidelines require — packaging, signage, sub-brands — because off-guideline use is the fastest way to lose an agency. Second, do not register the principal's mark in your own name without written consent: a distributor who files the principal's brand is a squatter with a familiar face, and the pattern ends relationships and starts oppositions.
The Swastik Fragrance dispute between an Indian rights holder and a local filer is the cautionary tale: preemptive filings poison the commercial relationship they were meant to secure.
The distributorship clauses that carry the trademarks
Scope the licence in writing
The appointment agreement should state which marks the distributor may use, for which goods and territory, and whether the distributor may register them locally — usually only as the principal's recordal agent.
Plan the exit while entering
On termination, the distributor's right to use the marks ends and stock, signage and listings must be wound down. A clause on the handover prevents the post-agency storefront that trades on the old brand.
Record what changes
Where the principal does register locally, address and agent details recorded at the DOI — NPR 1,000 per change — keep the register pointing at the right party.
Registering the import house name early
Nepal rewards the first filer: prior use does not beat a registration, and a trading house that has operated under a name for a decade without filing has, legally, the weaker position. The fix is cheap — NPR 1,000 per class to file and NPR 5,000 to register in current practice — and the search that precedes it is free.
A house filing in several classes (35 for the trading service, plus the classes of its private-label goods) faces several single-class applications; sequence them by revenue and file the rest as each line launches.
The portfolio table: own names vs principal names
| Name type | Who registers it | Where it lives | Renewal burden |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading name | The house itself | Class 35 — distribution and retail services | NPR 3,500 per 7-year term |
| Private labels and sub-brands | The house itself | The goods' classes | NPR 3,500 per class per term |
| Principal brands | The principal (or the house as recordal agent, with consent) | The goods' classes | The principal's calendar, not yours |
Keeping a multi-name portfolio alive
A dozen registrations mean a rolling calendar of 7-year expiries, each with its own 35-day window and 6-month grace. The administration is not optional at that scale — one lapsed registration is a gap a competitor or a former supplier can walk through. Per-class deadline tracking, in BS and AD, is the habit that keeps an import house's names as durable as its agencies.
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.