Security Services Trademark in Nepal: Class 45 and the Name That Wins Contracts
A security services trademark in Nepal: Class 45 for protection services, the adjacent classes, what filing costs, and why distinctive names win tenders.
Nepal's private security industry runs on trust conveyed by name and uniform — banks, hotels, factories and embassies buy protection from brands, not individuals. That makes the trademark the sector's quiet commercial weapon, and it makes the sector's naming conventions — Guard, Security, Nepal, Surakshya, repeated in every combination — its quiet legal trap.
A security services trademark in Nepal files in one core class, wins or loses on distinctiveness, and earns its fees at every tender document.
In short
A security services trademark in Nepal files in Class 45 — security services for the physical protection of persons and property — as its own application under the PDTA's single-class rule, at NPR 1,000 to file and NPR 5,000 to register, with NPR 3,500 renewal per class every 7 years. Manpower supply and recruitment sit in Class 35, guard training in Class 41, and branded equipment in Class 9. Names built from trade words invite Section 18 descriptiveness refusal, and Devanagari sound-alikes count as conflicts. Registration pays commercially: tenders, bank and embassy contracts and enforcement against impersonators all run through the register entry and the use evidence behind it.
The security services trademark class map in Nepal: Class 45 and its neighbours
Class 45 is the Nice home of security services — the physical protection of persons and property, guard services, alarm response. It is where a security company's brand does its commercial work, and under Section 18A of the PDTA it is one application: Nepal files one class per application, so the adjacent activities a security group runs are separate filings on separate clocks.
The class map matters because security companies are rarely single-class businesses. The group that guards premises, supplies manpower, trains guards and sells equipment is four filings — and the name that ties them together needs the core class registered before any of the rest.
| Business activity | Class | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Guarding and physical protection services | 45 | The core security services class |
| Manpower supply and guard recruitment | 35 | Personnel recruitment and supply services |
| Guard training academies | 41 | Education and training services |
| Branded equipment — CCTV, alarms, radios | 9 | Security apparatus as goods |
| Monitoring and response platforms | 42 / 45 | Technical services vs. protection services |
| Uniforms and branded kit | 25 | Clothing as goods |
The descriptive trap the sector sets for itself
Security company names in Nepal are built from a small lexicon — guard, security, protection, surakshya, the founder's district — and Section 18 of the PDTA refuses marks that merely describe the services. A name that says only what the company does and where it does it invites the descriptive objection; the registrations that clear examination are the coined and suggestive ones that could, in principle, belong to something else.
The phonetic trap compounds it: identical trade words in identical combinations produce names that differ by one syllable, and Nepal treats cross-script sound-alikes as deceptively similar even where no spelling matches. In a sector where every second name contains the same three words, the pre-filing search is the difference between a certificate and a correspondence file.
Fees, documents and the realistic timeline
Government fees follow the standard schedule: NPR 1,000 per class at filing and NPR 5,000 per class at registration, then NPR 3,500 per class every 7 years — due within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month grace route at NPR 4,500 including the NPR 1,000 fine. Domestic applicants attach company or industry registration, PAN and tax clearance; the Schedule 1(c) application travels with four printed specimens of the mark, in practice labels of about 8×8 cm — for a security firm, usually the logo used on uniforms, vehicles and ID cards.
An unopposed application typically registers in six to twelve months, with the 90-day opposition window after Bulletin publication as the point where conflicting local names surface.
After registration: use, recordals and the renewal clock
The one-year use rule (Section 18C) is easy for a security firm to satisfy and easy to forget to document: uniforms, client contracts, ID cards and invoices carrying the mark are the evidence, kept as a file per year. Recordal hygiene follows the same logic — a name or address change files at NPR 1,000, an ownership transfer at NPR 2,000 — so the register keeps pointing at the company that actually holds the contracts.
Renewals run at NPR 3,500 per class every 7 years, due within 35 days of expiry with a six-month grace route at NPR 4,500 including the NPR 1,000 fine. A multi-class security group should diarise every class's clock centrally — a lapsed core class is exactly the gap an impersonator looks for.
Why the certificate pays: tenders, contracts and impersonators
The commercial return on a security registration is unusually direct. Institutional clients — banks, hotels, INGOs, diplomatic missions — run procurement that asks for verifiable identity, and a registered mark with a certificate is the clean answer to 'who are you, legally'. The register entry also anchors enforcement: lookalike operators trading on a similar name, or misusing branding on uniforms and vehicles, are pursued with the registration as the foundation — the same register-backed logic the site's enforcement guides describe for consumer brands.
In a sector where an impostor's failures land on the real brand's reputation, the registration is reputation insurance as much as a commercial asset.
Search the lexicon, both scripts
Screen the name against the sector's crowded register — and in Devanagari transliteration.
Draft services wording that examines well
Name the commercial services precisely — 'security guard services', 'alarm monitoring' — not slogans.
File the core class first
Class 45 immediately; Class 35 and 41 as those lines actually operate.
Register, then build the use file
Uniforms, contracts, invoices and ID cards carrying the mark — the evidence tenders and enforcement both ask for.
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.