Patent Portfolio Costs in Nepal: Budgeting From Filing to Year 21
Patent portfolio costs in Nepal itemised: NPR 1,000 filing, NPR 7,000 registration, annual maintenance of NPR 5,000 and 7,500, and the 21-year ceiling.
A Nepalese patent is not one purchase. It is a filing fee, a registration fee, and then an annual maintenance bill that runs for up to twenty-one years — a structure that turns every patent into a line item that either earns its keep or should be allowed to lapse.
Portfolio owners who budget from the fee schedule make calm decisions each year. The ones who discover the annual fee at year 7 make panicked ones.
In short
Patent portfolio costs in Nepal run on three numbers: NPR 1,000 to file a Schedule 1(a) application and NPR 7,000 to register at grant, then annual maintenance of NPR 5,000 per year across years 7–14 and NPR 7,500 per year across years 14–21 (current practice). Renewals fall due within 35 days of each expiry with a 6-month grace period carrying a NPR 1,000 fine, and the 21-year ceiling is absolute — so the budget is an annual maintain-or-lapse decision per patent.
The fixed costs: filing and grant
The journey starts with the Schedule 1(a) application at the Department of Industry — NPR 1,000 — and ends, for successful applications, with the NPR 7,000 registration fee once the patent is accepted. Everything between is examination time, typically a year or more, and correspondence discipline: a delayed response to the technical committee is how applications quietly die.
Those two figures are per patent, not per class — the per-class logic of trademark fees does not apply here.
The annual engine: maintenance fees
The structure is deliberate: Nepal charges maintenance annually inside each 7-year renewal term, so keeping a patent alive is a year-by-year expense, not a lump sum at renewal.
| Stage | When | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Application (Schedule 1(a)) | At filing | NPR 1,000 |
| Registration | At grant | NPR 7,000 |
| Maintenance, first renewal term | Years 7–14, annually | NPR 5,000 per year |
| Maintenance, final term | Years 14–21, annually | NPR 7,500 per year |
| Late payment inside grace | Expiry + 35 days to + 6 months | Plus NPR 1,000 fine |
The 21-year ceiling and what it does to a budget
The term is 7 years from registration, renewable at most twice — 21 years, hard ceiling. Beyond grace at any renewal, the patent is cancelled automatically and permanently: the published specification is prior art against its own refiling. There is no revival.
For budgeting, that ceiling means a portfolio has a shape: costs taper only if patents are deliberately lapsed. A patent held to year 21 has paid NPR 8,000 up front and then NPR 5,000 seven times and NPR 7,500 seven times — NPR 40,000 in maintenance after roughly NPR 43,000 in official fees overall, before any professional fees. The rate nearly doubles in the final term, which is exactly when the maintain-or-lapse question should sharpen.
Maintain or lapse: the annual decision
Each year, each patent, one commercial question: is the invention being worked — manufactured, sold, licensed, imported under the patent, or held defensively? While the answer is yes, NPR 5,000 is cheap exclusivity. When the answer turns no, a documented, deliberate lapse is sound portfolio management, not negligence.
Review the portfolio annually
List every patent with its renewal date, the year inside its term, and its working status. The list is the budget.
File renewals on Schedule 2(d), early
Renewal is due within 35 days of term expiry; filing before the anniversary removes the fine risk entirely.
Lapse deliberately, in writing
A patent allowed to lapse should be a recorded decision with reasons — the file matters when the technology resurfaces later.
Budgeting a patent portfolio beyond the official schedule
Official fees are the predictable floor. On top sit professional fees for drafting and prosecution, Nepali translation for foreign-language disclosures, agent fees — and, for portfolios with international reach, PCT-stage costs that sit outside the DOI schedule entirely. A budget that prices only the government fees underestimates the real cost of a patent by a multiple.
The planning habit that works: budget the portfolio in per-patent, per-year lines, review the working status every year against the maintenance calendar, and treat the final-term rate rise at NPR 7,500 per year as the annual prompt to re-justify each survivor.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.