Software Company Trademark in Nepal: Classes 9 and 42, and the House-Brand Question
A software company trademark in Nepal: Classes 9 and 42 for products and services, the house-brand versus product-brand structure, costs, and the app-store reality.
A Nepali software company usually owns two names: the company everyone in the industry knows, and the product everyone in the market uses. Sometimes they are the same name; often they are not — and the difference decides how many trademark filings the company needs, and which one protects the revenue.
A software company trademark in Nepal starts with two classes and one structural decision. Both are cheap; only the decision is hard.
In short
A software company trademark in Nepal pairs Class 9 — recorded and downloadable software — with Class 42 — software services: SaaS, hosting, development — because Nepal files one application per class and the product and the service behind it are separate filings at NPR 1,000 each plus NPR 5,000 registration per class. The structural question is house brand versus product brand: a single mark for everything, or a registered family with the company mark above product marks — each mark is its own filing and its own 7-year renewal at NPR 3,500 per class. App stores do not check trademarks, Nepal runs first-to-file, and the Bulletin's 90-day window is where conflicts surface.
A software company trademark in Nepal: the Classes 9 and 42 pair
Class 9 covers recorded and downloadable software — the app, the installer, the licensed copy. Class 42 covers software services: SaaS provision, hosting, development, maintenance. The site's class guide puts the split simply — software is Class 9 while SaaS-style services gravitate to Class 42 — and Nepali software companies almost always need both, because the product and the way it reaches users rarely stay in one class.
The additions are situational: Class 35 where the company consults or resells, Class 38 where connectivity is the product, Class 41 for edtech content. Each is a separate application under Section 18A — no multi-class filings exist in Nepal.
| What the company does | Class | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Downloadable apps and licensed software | 9 | Recorded and downloadable software |
| SaaS, hosting, development services | 42 | Software services |
| IT consulting and reselling | 35 | Business and retail-type services |
| Connectivity or ISP products | 38 | Telecommunications services |
| Educational content platforms | 41 | Education and entertainment services |
| Company name itself | Separate decision | OCR registration is not a trademark |
House brand versus product brand: the structural decision
The filing count follows the brand architecture. A company trading everything under one name files one mark in two classes — two applications, done. A company with a house brand above named products — the pattern behind Nepal's family-of-marks strategies — registers the house mark once and each product mark separately, because each mark is its own filing, its own examination and its own renewal clock.
The deciding questions are commercial: will product names be sold, spun off or rebranded independently? Will the company name ever carry products it does not make? Where the answer is yes, the product marks earn their filings; where the company trades as one brand, the two-class single mark is cheaper and cleaner.
Costs and the realistic timeline
Government fees are per class: NPR 1,000 at filing and NPR 5,000 at registration, so the standard two-class filing runs NPR 12,000 across the journey. Renewals follow 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. An unopposed application registers in roughly six to twelve months.
Examination under Section 18 refuses names identical or deceptively similar to earlier marks — and software naming is crowded in both scripts, with Devanagari sound-alikes treated as conflicts even where no spelling matches. Descriptive names ('Nepal Software Solutions') invite the second objection; coined names clear.
Renewal discipline across the family of marks
Each mark, in each class, is its own 7-year renewal clock: NPR 3,500 per class, due within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month grace route at NPR 4,500 including the NPR 1,000 fine. A software company holding a house mark and three product marks across two classes runs six clocks — diarised in BS and AD, held by the company rather than by memory.
Register hygiene completes the discipline: name and address changes record at NPR 1,000, assignments at NPR 2,000, and a materially redesigned logo is a new mark that needs a new filing rather than an assumed continuation of the old certificate.
The app-store reality, and first-to-file
App stores and marketplaces do not verify trademark rights — a listing exists the moment someone uploads it, which is why Nepali founders discover conflicts at the worst moment: after the launch marketing, the press, the domain purchase. Nepal's first-to-file register cuts earlier: whoever files first owns the name's registration, regardless of who coded first.
The practical sequence for a Nepali software company: search before naming, file before launch, and watch the Industrial Property Bulletin's 90-day opposition window — both for your application's vulnerability and for later filings that land too close to yours.
Search before naming
Screen candidate names across Classes 9 and 42, in both scripts, before the design work starts.
Decide the architecture
One house mark or a family: the answer sets the filing count and the renewal calendar.
File both core classes
Schedule 1(c) per class with four specimen labels of about 8×8 cm; NPR 1,000 each.
Watch the Bulletin
Oppose close filings inside 90 days; diarise the two renewal clocks the moment the certificates arrive.
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.