Multiclass Trademark Application or Single-Class Filings? How Nepal Differs
A multiclass trademark application Nepal does not offer: how the single-class rule changes fees, examination, renewal risk, and filing strategy.
Applicants arriving from multiclass jurisdictions carry a habit that breaks in Kathmandu: the one-application-fits-all-classes reflex. Nepal does not work that way — Section 18A of the PDTA ties every application to a single Nice class, and there is no consolidation mechanism at any price.
The difference is not paperwork trivia. It changes the fees, the examination, the renewal risk and the whole shape of a brand's filing strategy.
In short
A multiclass trademark application is not available in Nepal: each Nice class requires its own Schedule 1(c) filing with its own NPR 1,000 application fee, NPR 5,000 registration fee, examination track and 7-year renewal at NPR 3,500 per class. The single-class structure keeps examination granular and lapses isolated, and the strategy that replaces multiclass convenience is sequencing — file the revenue-critical class first, add adjacent classes as the business enters them, and track every class on its own renewal calendar.
Multiclass trademark application versus Nepal's single-class rule
| Feature | Multiclass jurisdictions | Nepal (Section 18A) |
|---|---|---|
| Application | One application can cover many classes | One application = one class |
| Official fees | One filing fee plus per-class add-ons | Full fee per application: NPR 1,000 + NPR 5,000 per class in current practice |
| Examination | One file examined against several classes | Each class examined separately against its own goods |
| Renewal | One renewal across classes | Each class renews on its own 7-year clock, NPR 3,500 per class |
| A lapse in one class | Can affect the whole registration | Isolated — the other classes survive |
| Specification breadth | One list across classes | Each class carries its own goods list |
Why Nepal examines class by class
Section 18A ties each application to one class, and the rest of the system follows: examination searches and publishes against earlier marks in that one class with that one goods list, the Bulletin entry is self-contained, and every downstream fee — opposition, renewal, recordal — prices per mark, per class. In a registry processing thousands of publications a year, the granularity keeps conflicts legible: the record shows precisely which goods a mark claims, in precisely one class.
The trade-off lands entirely on the applicant, who files more. The rights produced are cleaner, not weaker — a point multiclass applicants appreciate the first time an isolated lapse or an opposition in one class leaves the rest of their portfolio untouched.
What the single-class rule costs — and what it saves
The arithmetic is honest about the cost. A brand in three classes files three applications: 3 × NPR 1,000 at filing, 3 × NPR 5,000 at registration, and eventually 3 × NPR 3,500 at each 7-year renewal — before any professional fees. Three examination tracks, three publication entries, three renewal anniversaries.
The savings are less visible but real. Fees attach to classes actually used, because the structure makes idle-class filing a visible expense. A problem in one class — a refusal, an opposition, a lapsed renewal — is contained. And each class's specification can be drafted for that class's goods, instead of one compromise list stretched across a table of classes.
The multiclass habit that mis-fires in Nepal
Two imported habits cause the damage. The first is the all-at-once reflex: filing every plausible class on day one, including classes the business cannot yet use. In Nepal each of those is a separate fee now and a separate renewal forever — and an unused registration carries its own vulnerability, since a mark not used within one year of registration can face a Department inquiry under Section 18C.
The second is the umbrella assumption: believing one filing covers the brand across everything it does. It covers one class. The café that registered food services and nothing else learns the gap when a competitor files the same name for packaged coffee — a different class, a different application, and no conflict with the café's registration until it is filed and published.
Sequencing: the Nepal version of a multiclass strategy
File the revenue-critical class immediately
The class where the money is made today gets the first filing — protection before marketing spend, on the first-to-file clock.
Add the distribution class as retail goes live
Class 35 for retail and trading services joins when the business actually brings goods to consumers.
Back-fill priority within six months for foreign brands
Classes filed at home abroad can claim Paris Convention priority in Nepal within the window, class by class.
File defensive adjacent classes deliberately
When copycat risk or expansion becomes concrete — not as reflex. Every class filed is a class examined, responded for and renewed.
The renewal calendar multiplies with the classes
Single-class filings produce a rolling portfolio calendar: classes filed in different years renew in different years, each with its own 35-day window and 6-month grace period at NPR 4,500 including the fine. At three classes this is a spreadsheet; at ten it is a system. The failure mode is known — one lapsed class is a gap in the portfolio, and in a first-to-file system a gap is an invitation. The multiclass jurisdictions concentrate their renewal risk once every ten years; Nepal spreads it, and the answer is per-class deadline tracking from the day the first certificate issues.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.