Multi-Class Trademark Applications: Why Nepal Requires Single-Class Filings

The structure: one application, one class, one fee

Section 18A ties each application to a single Nice class, and Schedule 3 charges its fees per application. The Department's examination, publication entry, certificate and renewal all attach to the individual class filing. There is no consolidated multi-class application and no partial-coverage certificate.

The practical consequence is arithmetic: a brand in three classes is three applications — 3 × NPR 1,000 at filing, 3 × NPR 5,000 at registration, and eventually 3 × NPR 3,500 per renewal in current practice. Each is examined separately and each lives on its own renewal clock.

• One Schedule 1(c) application per class — no consolidation mechanism exists
• Fees, examination, publication, certificate and renewal all attach per application
• A lapse in one class does not affect the others — siloed, but survivable

Why the system works this way

Single-class filing keeps the examination surface small and predictable: each application is searched and published against earlier marks in one class, with one goods list. In a registry processing thousands of publications a year with manual review, that granularity keeps conflicts legible — the record shows precisely which goods a mark claims, in precisely one class.

It also maps neatly onto the fee schedule and the register: opposition, renewal and recordal fees all price per mark, per class, so a single-class structure keeps every entry self-contained. The trade-off is administrative — more filings for the applicant — but the rights produced are cleaner, not weaker.

How multi-class businesses should file

The mistake to avoid is the all-at-once reflex: filing every plausible class on day one, including classes the business cannot yet use or examine. Each idle class still costs fees now and renewals forever — and an unused registration is itself a vulnerability under Section 18C's one-year use rule.

The stronger plan is sequenced filing: the revenue-critical class immediately; the second class as launch approaches; adjacent defensive classes on a deliberate schedule. For a foreign brand entering Nepal, the 6-month Paris Convention priority window shapes the same logic — claim priority for the classes filed at home, within the window, in the order of commercial entry.

Renewal discipline at portfolio scale

Single-class filings multiply renewal anniversaries: ten class filings in different years produce a rolling calendar of 7-year expiries, each with its own 35-day window and 6-month grace. A lapsed class is a gap in the portfolio — and in a first-to-file system, a gap is an invitation.

Portfolio-scale deadline tracking is not optional at this point; it is the administration that keeps the registrations alive. Automated reminders in BS and AD, per-class, are the practical answer for anything beyond a handful of marks.