Bilingual Trademarks in Nepal: Registering the English and Nepali Versions of a Brand
Bilingual trademark strategy in Nepal: composite bilingual marks, separate English and Devanagari filings, transliteration risks, and what each route costs.
Nepal's biggest consumer brands do not choose between scripts — their packaging speaks both at once, the signboard in Devanagari, the label's corner in English. The trademark question underneath the design is: which script does the register protect, and does filing one protect the other?
A bilingual trademark in Nepal is a route decision — composite mark, separate filings, or transliteration reliance — and the three routes cost different amounts and carry very different risks.
In short
A bilingual trademark in Nepal can be structured three ways: a **composite mark** filing both scripts together (one application per class), **separate English and Devanagari filings** (each its own application, NPR 1,000 plus NPR 5,000 registration per class), or reliance on transliteration — the riskiest route, because registration protects the mark as filed, and Nepal treats cross-script sound-alikes as conflicting marks rather than equivalents. Most brands that use both scripts seriously file both, because the script a copyist picks is rarely the script the certificate covers. Searches must run phonetically across both scripts, and the registered forms should match actual packaging use.
Three routes to a bilingual brand
The composite route files the bilingual label as one mark — both scripts in a single design, one application per class. It matches packaging where the scripts always travel together, and it is the cheapest coverage: one fee set per class.
The separate-marks route files the English mark and the Devanagari mark as independent registrations — two applications per class, each examined and renewed on its own clock. It matches brands that use the scripts in different contexts (English for export packaging, Devanagari for the domestic shelf) and gives each script's enforcement its own certificate.
The transliteration route files one script and relies on the phonetic link to cover the other. Nepal's examiners compare across scripts, so the link is real — but it is a shield that depends on how similar the sounds are, not a right in the unregistered script.
| Route | Filings per class | What it covers | The risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composite bilingual mark | One | The combined label as used | Changes to the layout need the mark re-filed |
| Separate marks per script | Two | Each script's mark independently | Double fees and double renewal clocks |
| Transliteration reliance | One | The registered script; the other by argument | Coverage depends on phonetic similarity |
A bilingual trademark in Nepal: the cost math
Per class, per mark: NPR 1,000 at filing and NPR 5,000 at registration — so the separate-marks route doubles the government fees and, more significantly, doubles the renewal obligations: NPR 3,500 per mark, per class, every 7 years, each inside a 35-day window with a six-month grace route at NPR 4,500 including the NPR 1,000 fine.
The arithmetic argues for honesty about use. A brand that genuinely operates in both scripts pays for both, because each script's registration earns its keep in enforcement. A brand that files the second script speculatively buys a renewal liability for a mark it never uses — and an unused registration is itself vulnerable under Section 18C's one-year use rule.
How examiners see bilingual brands
Nepalese examination compares marks phonetically and conceptually across scripts — an English name and a Devanagari name that sound alike are treated as deceptively similar even though they share no characters. That practice is what gives transliteration reliance its partial protection, and it is also what makes bilingual searches mandatory: a clearance search that checks only the registered script will miss the conflict filed in the other one.
It cuts defensively too. The brand that registered only in English can be challenged by — or can challenge — a later Devanagari filer whose name sounds the same. Script coverage is conflict management in both directions, which is why Nepal's established consumer brands tend to hold their key marks in both scripts.
Watching the Bulletin in both scripts
The 90-day opposition window after Bulletin publication is where bilingual conflicts surface: a competitor's Devanagari filing that sounds like your English registration, or the reverse. A brand holding marks in both scripts watches both — the published applications are the last cheap chance to object before a conflicting mark registers.
The watch also protects the route you chose. A composite mark's strength depends on no conflicting registration accumulating around either half of the label; the separate-marks strategy depends on neither script's certificate lapsing into a competitor's hands. Either way, the Bulletin is read in both scripts.
Using the registered forms consistently
A registration protects the mark as filed. The bilingual label that redesigns itself into a new arrangement, or the Devanagari mark that drifts into a new stylisation, gradually stops matching the certificate — and the mismatch surfaces exactly when enforcement needs the registration. The discipline is the packaging rule the site's bilingual-branding guide teaches: fix the registered forms, and keep actual use aligned with them.
When the brand itself changes — new script, new stylisation, new owner — the register should follow: a fresh filing for a materially new mark, and recordals (NPR 1,000 for a name or address change, NPR 2,000 for an assignment) whenever the ownership behind the marks moves.
Map where each script is used
Shelf, export, digital, signage — the use map decides which routes are honest.
Choose composite, separate or transliteration — deliberately
Composite for the travelling-together label; separate filings where scripts live apart.
File the core class in both scripts where both are used
NPR 1,000 per mark per class; the renewal calendar follows the certificate count.
Keep use aligned with the certificates
The registered forms are the enforcement forms — audit packaging against the register annually.
Want this handled for your brand?
IP Watch monitors new trademark publications in Nepal and alerts you to potentially conflicting marks — with the context needed to review them.
This article is general information, not legal advice.