Restaurant Trademarks in Nepal: Classes 43, 35 and the Packaged-Goods Question
Restaurant trademark registration in Nepal: Class 43 for the service, Class 35 for delivery, Class 30 for packaged products, with fees, naming and copycat defence.
A Nepalese restaurant's brand outgrows its dining room faster than any other local business: the name that fills a room in Baneshwor becomes a delivery brand on the apps, a bottled achar on the shelf, and a franchise enquiry from Pokhara — often within two years.
Each of those businesses lives in a different trademark class, and Nepal files one class per application. The restaurant that planned its filings for the dining room alone discovers, at the packaging deal, that someone else holds the shelf.
In short
A restaurant in Nepal registers its trademark in Class 43 (food and drink services) first, adding Class 35 for delivery, takeaway and retail operations and Class 30 or 29 when packaged products hit shelves — each class a separate Schedule 1(c) application at NPR 1,000 to file and NPR 5,000 to register, renewed per class every 7 years at NPR 3,500. The name should be cleared in English and Devanagari before signage is printed, with descriptive food names (Thakali, momo) treated as generic. Copycats are met through the Bulletin's 90-day opposition window, platform complaints, and DOI complaints where the goods are already in the market.
Why restaurants need more than one class
The service–goods divide is the one that catches restaurants: Class 43 protects the dining experience, and does nothing for a jar of the restaurant's pickle on a supermarket shelf. Nepal's single-class rule makes each addition its own application — NPR 1,000 at filing, NPR 5,000 at registration — so the map is also the budget, and the sequence follows the revenue: dining room first, delivery and retail as they launch. The NICE Class Finder places any borderline item before the fee is paid.
| Class | Covers | When to file |
|---|---|---|
| 43 | Restaurant, café, catering, takeaway services | Day one — the core business |
| 35 | Delivery platform services, retail, franchising, advertising | When delivery, retail or franchise operations start |
| 30 | Packaged sauces, spices, mixes, bakery goods | When products reach shelves |
| 29 | Packaged dairy, ready foods | Where the packaged line is dairy or meat-based |
| 21 | Branded merchandise (mugs, bottles) | Where merchandise is sold under the name |
Naming a restaurant the register can protect
Restaurant naming runs on food vocabulary and place names — and both are weak on the register. 'Thakali kitchen', 'momo house', 'Newari restaurant' describe the food and cannot distinguish it; geographic terms describe location. What protects well is the distinctive element: a coined name, a personal or family name with a story, a word that means nothing until the dining room gives it meaning — paired with a strong logo the market recognises.
Clear the name before the sign is made, in both scripts. The Devanagari transliteration of an English name is treated as a conflicting mark when the sound matches, and restaurant searches happen in Nepali as often as English. A screening search before the signage order is the cheapest decision in the whole launch budget.
Growth paperwork: delivery, franchises and licences
Restaurant growth creates register questions faster than most sectors. Delivery platforms list the brand under the restaurant's name — a use of the mark worth capturing in invoices and screenshots, feeding the use-evidence file. Franchise and branch enquiries need the house mark registered in the owning entity first, with written licences (permitted use, standards, exit terms) and recordal at the DOI — NPR 2,000 per mark — where fees flow; the site's expansion guide walks the sequence. Packaged products often run through co-packers who touch the brand daily: confidentiality and ownership terms in the manufacturing contract, or the shelf success builds someone else's leverage.
The use evidence a restaurant already generates
- Invoices and bills — every printed bill carrying the name and logo is a dated use record
- Delivery listings — screenshots of the brand live on the platforms, dated, showing reach beyond the dining room
- Menus, packaging and signage — photographed on installation and on every redesign, keeping the look's history documented
- Press and reviews — coverage and listings that tie the name to the location and the years
- Together these feed the non-use defence, any opposition, and the proof a franchisee or investor will ask for
The copycat response for a restaurant brand
Watch the Bulletin
New applications near the name surface at publication — opposition inside the 90-day window stops a copycat before it registers, at the cheapest point in the map.
Clear the platforms
Copycat listings on delivery apps and fake pages respond to documented complaints — registration details first. Cloud-kitchen era listings make this the fastest-moving front.
Escalate on the register
A registered lookalike faces DOI complaints and cancellation — including the non-use route where the copycat's mark has sat unused for a year.
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.