Joint Patent Ownership in Nepal: How Co-Inventors Should Structure the Right
Joint patent ownership in Nepal: naming co-inventors on Schedule 1(a), documenting shares, the NPR 5,000 register recordal, and the disputes to prevent.
Two engineers, a professor and a workshop owner build one machine. The invention works; the Schedule 1(a) form asks for one thing the group has not discussed — whose names go on the application, and on what terms.
Joint patent ownership in Nepal is straightforward to set up and expensive to improvise. This guide walks through the naming decision, the paperwork that documents each co-inventor's position, and the recordals that keep the register true.
In short
Joint patent ownership in Nepal starts with honest inventorship: the Schedule 1(a) application names the inventors, and where the applicant is not an inventor, the basis of the applicant's right must be documented — an assignment or agreement. Co-inventors should record contribution shares and commercial terms in writing before filing, record any transfer of shares at the Department of Industry (NPR 5,000 for a patent assignment recordal), and renew through an agreed single point of contact, because a lapse in the 35-day window kills the patent for everyone.
Name the real inventors — then paper the applicant
The application form asks for the inventor's details — name, address and occupation — and the Department expects the applicant's chain of right to be evident where the applicant is not the inventor. With several contributors, two documents do the work: the application naming the genuine inventors, and a written agreement (or assignments) showing how the rights come together in the applicant — an individual, a company, or all inventors jointly. Skipping the second document because 'we're partners' is how joint inventions end up owned by nobody in particular.
The co-inventor agreement: write the deal before the grant
The questions a co-inventor agreement answers are cheaper now than at grant:
- Shares: what each inventor holds — equal thirds is a decision, not a default
- Filing and maintenance costs: who funds the NPR 1,000 application, NPR 7,000 registration and the annual maintenance of NPR 5,000, then NPR 7,500 per year in the renewal terms
- Commercialisation: who may license or assign, and how proceeds split
- Enforcement: who sues an infringer, and who pays for it
- Exit: what happens to a share when a co-inventor leaves, dies or stops contributing
Recording joint patent ownership changes on the register
Whatever the internal agreement says, the register should follow it. A transfer of a patent share — between inventors, into a company, or to an investor — is recorded at the Department of Industry as an assignment recordal, NPR 5,000 for a patent under the current fee schedule. The recordal is what diligence reads: investors, licensees and courts check the register first, and an internal agreement the register contradicts invites exactly the dispute it was meant to prevent. Keep the recordal trail complete from filing day, and any change in the agent of record should be coordinated with it, since renewals route through the agent on file.
| Stage | Document | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Before filing | Co-inventor agreement: shares, costs, exits | The group's records |
| At filing | Schedule 1(a) naming inventors; assignments if the applicant differs | The DOI application file |
| On any share transfer | Assignment deed + DOI recordal (NPR 5,000) | The register |
| Every renewal | Jointly funded renewal through the agent of record | The 35-day window calendar |
The renewal trap that catches groups
Joint ownership multiplies the ways a patent can die of silence. The term runs 7 years from registration, renewable twice (a 21-year ceiling under Section 23B), and each renewal is due within 35 days of expiry with a 6-month grace period carrying a NPR 1,000 fine — after which cancellation is automatic and the published specification blocks refiling. Groups lapse patents for ordinary reasons: the member who paid renewals left, the invoice went to a departed founder's email, nobody knew whose turn it was. The fix is structural: one named person or agent owns the renewal calendar, all co-owners fund it under the written agreement, and reminders run in both BS and AD.
If the relationship sours
Disputes between co-inventors — over unconsented licensing, withheld consent to enforcement, or a share sold to a competitor — resolve on the documents: the co-inventor agreement, the assignment recordals and the register. That is the whole case for papering the deal before the grant: Nepalese patent procedure will happily register what the inventors agree, but it will not invent the agreement for them. The group that writes its terms at the application stage holds a patent that survives its friendships.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.