Trademark for a Clothing Brand in Nepal: Class 25 and the Filing Plan
Registering a clothing brand trademark in Nepal: Class 25 basics, adjacent classes worth filing, Devanagari search, fees per class and the opposition window.
A clothing brand lives on its name and its label, and in Nepal both are protectable — one application per class, at the Department of Industry, from NPR 1,000 per class to file. The mistake most new labels make is not the filing itself; it is filing too late or too narrowly, after the name is already on the street.
Here is the class map, the fees, and the journey from application to certificate for a Nepali clothing brand.
In short
A clothing brand trademark in Nepal starts with Class 25 — clothing, footwear and headgear — filed as a single-class application at the DOI: NPR 1,000 to file, NPR 5,000 to register per class in current practice, with a 7-year renewable term. Brands that also sell bags, fabric or retail online add Class 18, 24 or 35 as each business line goes live. Expect six to twelve months if the application is unopposed.
The clothing brand trademark in Nepal starts in Class 25
Nepal applies the Nice Classification under Section 18A of the PDTA, and clothing, footwear and headgear sit in Class 25. Because applications are single-class, the Class 25 filing is its own application with its own fee, examination, publication and 7-year renewal — no bundling.
The specification wording matters as much as the class: goods are claimed item by item — 'ready-made garments', 'T-shirts', 'caps' — and examiners read that wording against earlier Class 25 marks. Draft it to cover what you actually sell and the line you are launching next.
What else a clothing business files
The rule of thumb: file where revenue is, plus the class you can credibly show you are entering next. Every extra class costs NPR 1,000 now, NPR 5,000 at registration and NPR 3,500 per 7-year renewal in current practice — and an unused registration invites the one-year non-use question under Section 18C.
| Business line | Class | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Garments, footwear, caps | 25 | The core goods of the brand |
| Bags, backpacks, leather goods | 18 | Leather and imitations of leather; bags |
| Fabric sold by the metre | 24 | Textiles and textile goods, not made up |
| Own retail or online store | 35 | Retail and trading services |
Name and label: two filings, one brand
Most clothing brands protect two things: the word mark — the brand name as shoppers ask for it — and the label or logo device that appears on every garment. A word mark registration covers the name across all your Class 25 goods; a device registration covers the visual label. Filing both is common where the label is distinctive enough to be copied on its own.
Marks can be words, devices, labels or combinations. Whatever you file, the printed specimens — four of them, in practice labels of about 8×8 cm — must match what you will actually sew into the garments.
Search Devanagari and English before you print
Clothing is a transliteration-heavy category: the same brand appears on the street as an English wordmark, a Devanagari signboard and a romanised sound-alike. Section 18(1) refuses marks identical or deceptively similar to earlier marks for the same or similar goods — and phonetic identity across scripts counts.
Search the exact name, then the variants
Run the exact brand name across the DOI's published records, then the spellings and transcriptions you would be annoyed to be opposed by.
Check the class before filing
Confirm the class for each product line — the alphabetical list and class notes settle the edge cases.
File and track the window
The application publishes in the Industrial Property Bulletin, opening a roughly 90-day opposition window; registration follows if nobody objects.
From filing to certificate: the clothing-brand timeline
An unopposed domestic application typically registers in six to twelve months: formality and substantive examination first, Bulletin publication and the opposition window next, then the NPR 5,000 registration fee and the certificate. The term runs 7 years from registration and renews indefinitely — renewal on Schedule 2(f) within 35 days of expiry at NPR 3,500 per class, with a 6-month grace period carrying a NPR 1,000 fine.
Diarise the anniversary on the day the certificate arrives, and start using the mark in trade — use within the first year is what keeps the registration safe from a non-use inquiry.
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.