Novelty Requirements for Industrial Designs Under Nepalese Law

The novelty test, precisely

The Act requires a design to be new or original — in practice, two questions. First, has the design been published or publicly known anywhere before the Nepalese filing date? A design shown in a foreign catalogue or on an Instagram post is as dead as one sold in Kathmandu. Second, is it substantially the same as a registered design already on the Nepalese register? Variants that a practical eye reads as the same design do not pass.

Note the geography: novelty is assessed against disclosures in Nepal or abroad — a common misconception is that only Nepalese prior art matters. It does not, and the examination can catch foreign prior publication.

• New = not published or publicly known in Nepal or abroad, before filing
• Original = not substantially the same as a registered design
• Foreign disclosure counts — no 'local novelty' shortcut

The disclosures that kill designs

Design novelty dies quietly, in ordinary business moments. The recurring killers:

• Launch events and in-store displays before the filing date
• Catalogues, price lists and trade-fair exhibits — even to a small audience
• Social media and websites — a single product photo is publication
• Samples and pilot sales to distributors or customers
• The applicant's own marketing — 'our own disclosure' is no exception

Preparing representations that register

A design application lives or dies by its representations — the drawings or photographs through which the examiner and the register see the design. The standard is consistency and completeness: the same article, shown from a uniform set of views, with the features claimed for protection clearly visible and no clutter (backgrounds, hands, contextual objects) that blurs what is claimed.

File before any disclosure — the marketing calendar and the filing calendar must be coordinated so the application date precedes the first public showing. And file the form you actually make: representations of a design you intend to change later protect the version shown, so the representation set should match the production article as closely as the medium allows.

• Consistent views, clean backgrounds, claimed features visible
• Filing date precedes first public showing — no exceptions
• Represent the production article, not the concept sketch

After registration: the term and the watch

A registered design gives 5 years from registration, renewable twice (to 15), with renewal windows of 35 days plus a 6-month grace. Renewal is cheap; the real post-registration discipline is watching — a design register is smaller than the trademark register, but copycats appear in the market faster than in any gazette, and market-level monitoring (distributors, retail audits) complements the Bulletin watch.

And remember the layered endgame: as the design ages toward its ceiling, trademark protection over the label and branding — plus the acquired distinctiveness of the pack's trade dress — takes over the load. The design right is the sprint; the trademark is the marathon.