IP Registration in Nepal: The Complete Guide to Every Right

The map of IP registration in Nepal: two offices, one statute

Nepal's IP registration landscape has two administrative homes. The Department of Industry (DOI) in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu registers the three industrial-property rights under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 BS (1965): trademarks, patents and industrial designs. The Copyright Registrar's Office handles voluntary copyright registration under the Copyright Act, 2059 (2002) — with protection itself automatic from creation.

Two categories sit outside registration entirely for now: trade secrets, protected through contract and conduct, and geographical indications, which await the statutory GI chapter the proposed Industrial Property Bill 2082 would introduce.

Trademarks: the right most businesses file first

A trademark protects the name, logo or label that distinguishes your goods or services. Nepal files one application per class under the Nice Classification's 45 classes (Section 18A), examined for Section 18(1) conflicts, published in the Industrial Property Bulletin with a 90-day opposition window, and registered for 7 years, renewable indefinitely.

Fees at current practice: NPR 1,000 per class to file and NPR 5,000 per class to register, then NPR 3,500 per class every seventh year to renew (NPR 4,500 in the grace period). An unopposed registration typically completes in 6–12 months.

Patents and designs: the product-protection pair

A patent protects how an invention works — the PDTA's Section 2(a) covers processes, methods of manufacture, operation or transmission, and theory- or formula-based inventions. Applications run on Schedule 1(a) through technical-committee examination and Gazette publication, with objections inside 35 days. The term is 7 years from registration, renewable twice — a hard 21-year maximum — with annual maintenance fees (NPR 5,000, then NPR 7,500 per year at current practice) inside each renewal term.

An industrial design protects how a product looks: shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation, filed on Schedule 1(b) with four sets of representations. Examination is light; registration costs NPR 1,000 plus NPR 7,000; the term is 5 years, renewable twice — 15 years maximum — with maintenance at NPR 1,000–2,000 per year. Designs are the fastest, cheapest of the three DOI rights.

Copyright: automatic protection, voluntary evidence

Copyright protects creative works — code, books, music, films, artwork, photography — automatically from creation under the Copyright Act, 2059 (2002). No filing is required for the right to exist; the general term is the author's life plus 50 years, with shorter terms for some work types.

What voluntary registration with the Copyright Registrar's Office buys is evidence: a dated, government-issued record of authorship and ownership that shifts the burden in disputes, satisfies investor and licensee diligence, and anchors infringement responses. Registration records the chain of title — it cannot fix a broken one, so assignments come first.

The comparison table

The whole landscape on one page — fees at current practice, confirm before paying.

Deciding where your first filing goes

The default sequence for a Nepalese business works in most cases: search and file the trademark first — the brand is what gets copied first and the register runs first-to-file; register the design if a distinctive product look carries value, before any public exhibition; consider the patent only where a genuine process or method justifies 21 years of maintenance decisions; register copyright on the crown-jewel works for the evidence file; paper the trade secrets with NDAs and access controls in parallel.

One caveat frames every decision: the Industrial Property Bill 2082 — still proposed — would modernise all of this, from 10-year trademark terms to statutory GIs and trade secrets. Until it is enacted, the structure above is the law, and the first-to-file clock rewards filing now over waiting for a friendlier statute.