Retail IP in Nepal: The Protection Checklist for Shops, Chains and Private Labels

Retail IP in Nepal starts with the store name in Class 35

Retail and store services sit in Nice Class 35 — the class that covers bringing goods to the consumer. Registering the shop's name there is the foundation: NPR 1,000 application and NPR 5,000 registration in current practice, on a Schedule 1(c) filing at the Department of Industry, for a 7-year term renewable indefinitely.

One caution follows from Nepal's single-class rule: a Class 35 registration protects the retail identity, not the products sold inside. A supermarket that bottles its own water and bakes its own bread needs Class 32 and Class 30 filings as well — each class a separate application, fee and renewal.

Private labels: own the whole label, not just the name

A private label is three assets in one. The brand name is a trademark in the product's own class. The packaging's visual design — the label's look, the box's shape — can be registered as an industrial design: NPR 1,000 to file, NPR 7,000 to register, a 5-year term renewable twice to a 15-year ceiling. And the label artwork itself is copyright from the moment it is created — owned by the designer who drew it unless a written assignment says otherwise.

The designer-default trap catches private-label owners every year: the Kathmandu studio that created the label owns the artwork, and the retailer who paid for it owns nothing but a receipt. Get the assignment at contract signature.

Selling other brands: distributor use discipline

Stocking a supplier's brand is use of a registered mark under permission, and the permission should be written: which marks, on which goods, sourced from whom, and what happens on termination. Genuine goods lawfully acquired raise fewer problems than grey-market sourcing — but even genuine distribution ends, and a retailer left holding signage, packaging and printed material in a supplier's mark has a wind-down problem the contract should have solved.

The reverse also matters: suppliers demand quality control and correct mark use from their Nepalese distributors. Using the mark exactly as licensed — no altered logos, no unapproved translations into Devanagari — keeps the relationship and the licence clean.

Counterfeits and lookalikes: enforcement on the shelf in Nepal

The shelf-level threats arrive from two directions: counterfeits of the brands you carry, and lookalikes of your private labels. Both start with evidence — dated purchase receipts, photographs, the seller's details — and both have routes: a cease-and-desist letter, a complaint through the Department of Industry, customs channels where goods cross borders, and takedown processes on platforms like Daraz for listings.

A registration is what makes those routes work. An unregistered private label can be copied almost without consequence; a registered one grounds opposition, DOI complaints and enforcement correspondence.

Photos, menus and point-of-sale: the copyright layer

Product photography, menu boards, posters, the website and its copy are all copyright works, protected automatically under the Copyright Act, 2059 (2002). The same creator-first default applies: the freelancer who shot the catalogue owns the photos unless assigned. One written assignment per engagement fixes the whole layer.

Voluntary registration with the Copyright Registrar's Office is available for high-value assets — a flagship campaign, a catalogue — as dated evidence if a dispute ever needs it.

The renewal calendar retail owners forget

Every class filing renews on its own 7-year anniversary: within 35 days of expiry at NPR 3,500 per class, then a 6-month grace period carrying a NPR 1,000 fine. Miss both and the registration is cancelled automatically — and in a first-to-file system, the name is available to anyone, including the competitor across the street. A five-outlet chain with three filings has a small but real calendar; a hundred-SKU private-label programme has a portfolio. Both need one calendar.