Trademark Proof of Use in Nepal: The Records That Protect a Registration
Trademark proof of use in Nepal: the Section 18C one-year rule, the use records to keep per mark, and the file that answers DOI notices and demands.
Nepal does not ask you to prove use when you file a trademark — it asks later. A mark not brought into use within one year of registration invites a Department inquiry and cancellation under Section 18C, and use-related notices do not stop after year one.
The defence is a file, built continuously and kept per mark. This guide sets out what trademark proof of use in Nepal means in practice: what counts as use, what records to keep, and how the file answers the notices that arrive.
In short
Trademark proof of use in Nepal exists to answer Section 18C: a mark unused within one year of registration is vulnerable to a Department cancellation inquiry, and use questions recur through the registration's life. The evidence file is kept per mark, continuously: dated sales invoices, labelled packaging specimens, advertising and promotional records, distribution and retail evidence, customs data for imported goods, and licence or distributor agreements showing authorised use. Bilingual packaging counts; use by licensees counts when the licence is written. The habit costs minutes per month and answers, in advance, the notice no business wants to receive.
The rule that makes proof of use necessary
Section 18C is Nepal's use requirement: a trademark that has not been used within one year of registration can be the subject of a Department inquiry and cancellation. The exposure is structural — Nepal grants registrations to non-users (no prior use is required to file), and the use rule is how the register self-prunes marks that never went to market.
The vulnerability does not end after the first year. Use-related administrative notices arrive against registered marks, and a mark that goes dormant after years of trading can attract the same questions. The pattern in practice: the DOI sends a use-related notice; the proprietor answers with evidence; marks with files answer in days, marks without files negotiate from weakness.
What counts as use of a Nepalese trademark
Use means bona fide trade in Nepal under the registered mark — and the forms that count are broader than businesses assume:
| Use | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|
| Sales under the mark | Dated invoices, sales records, tax filings matching the mark's use |
| Packaged goods in trade | Label and packaging specimens, dated — bilingual packaging counts |
| Advertising and promotion | Ads, posters, social and media placements with dates |
| Distribution / retail placement | Distributor agreements, stockist lists, shelf or outlet photographs |
| Imported goods | Customs import data tying the mark to shipments |
| Use by licensees / distributors | The written licence or agreement — authorised use counts when papered |
The trademark proof of use file for Nepal marks
The working system is deliberately boring: one folder (physical or scanned) per mark, fed monthly or quarterly. Each entry is dated, tied to the mark as registered — the exact word and device, including the Devanagari form where you trade bilingually — and covers every channel the mark actually sells through. The annual IP review appends the year's evidence to each file.
Two disciplines make the evidence usable. Match the registered mark: use that drifts from the registered form (a redesigned logo, an added word) weakens the proof and signals a record-change or rebrand conversation. And paper the licensed use: a distributor selling under your mark without a written agreement is use you may not be able to claim — the agreement is what converts their sales into your evidence.
When the notice arrives: responding to the DOI
A use-related notice from the Department has a response window, and the answer is the evidence file — organised, dated, translated where the officer needs Nepali. Respond within time even when the evidence is partial; silence converts a manageable inquiry into a cancellation track. The response is stronger when it is structured: the mark as registered, the period of use, then evidence by category — sales, packaging, advertising, distribution — with the most recent material first.
If the honest answer is that use lapsed, the options narrow: resume genuine use and evidence it, or make a deliberate decision about the mark's future rather than letting the cancellation process decide it for you. A lapsed registration is not merely unregistered — it is available to anyone, including a competitor, to apply for.
The second life of the use file
The same file earns its keep beyond Section 18C. In oppositions and cancellations, use and reputation evidence is what carries the case — dated Nepalese use is the strongest exhibit a local brand holds. In enforcement, the file substantiates infringement complaints to the DOI or police: the registered mark in trade, the infringer's copy, the market harmed. In transactions, acquirers and licensors diligence exactly this: is the portfolio used, evidenced and alive?
And the direction of travel raises the file's value: Nepalese practice has grown more use-conscious (use-requirement notices, non-use cancellation activity), and the proposed Industrial Property Bill 2082's TRIPS alignment keeps use questions central. The file that answers a notice today is the asset that prices the brand tomorrow.
A 15-minute quarterly routine
The whole discipline compresses into a quarterly quarter-hour per mark: drop the quarter's invoices, a packaging or ad specimen, and any new distribution or licence documents into the file; confirm the mark's use matches the registered form; note anything that changed (new slogan, new label) for the recordal or rebrand conversation. Fifteen minutes a quarter is the difference between answering a DOI notice in a day and discovering, under deadline, that the proof does not exist.
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This article is general information, not legal advice.