Trademark Registration in Nepal: Legal Framework and Filing Process

What registration actually gives you (and what it does not)

A Nepalese trademark registration gives the proprietor exclusive rights in the registered mark for the registered goods or services, class by class. It puts the mark on the register maintained at the Department of Industry, creates a legal presumption of ownership that stands behind any dispute, and is the basis for everything that follows commercially: licensing a franchise partner, recording an assignment when the business is sold, or objecting to a competitor's later application that lands too close to yours.

Registration in Nepal follows a first-to-file logic. There is no use-based priority until a mark is registered — a business that has traded for years on an unregistered name generally has a weaker position than a later filer. That single feature explains most of the strategy in this guide: the file date matters, and what is already on the register matters more.

It is equally important to be clear about what registration does not do. It does not watch the register for you — a later, similar application will be published and, if nobody opposes it, will proceed to registration. It does not enforce itself; stopping infringement requires separate action. And it does not survive neglect: a registration that is not renewed in time is cancelled automatically, and the mark becomes available to anyone — including a competitor — to register.

• Gives you: exclusive class-by-class rights, a register entry and certificate, and the standing to oppose, license, assign or enforce
• Does not give you: automatic monitoring of new applications, enforcement, or protection outside the registered classes and territory
• Nepal context: no Madrid Protocol route — protection here exists only through this national registration

The legal framework: one Act, one department, one register

Trademarks in Nepal are governed by the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965) — universally abbreviated to the PDTA — together with its Rules and the fee schedule in Schedule 3. The Act is old in calendar terms but has been amended repeatedly, and it remains the single statute under which trademarks, industrial designs and patents are all registered.

Administration sits with the Department of Industry (DoI), Industrial Property Section, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu. The Department examines applications, publishes accepted marks in its Industrial Property Bulletin, keeps the register under Section 22, issues certificates and records transfers, licences and name or address changes.

Classification follows the Nice Classification system — the international catalogue of 45 classes for goods and services — as applied domestically under Section 18A. Applications in Nepal are examined class by class: a mark registered for Class 30 (coffee, tea, cocoa) does not, by itself, block a conflicting mark filed for Class 35 (retail services), though similarity across classes is one of the factors examiners weigh.

At the international level, Nepal is a member of the Paris Convention and a WTO member bound by the TRIPS Agreement — which is why foreign applicants can claim a six-month priority right here. Nepal is not a member of the Madrid System, so there is no international-registration route: a foreign brand that wants protection in Nepal must file nationally, through a local agent. That structural fact shapes most cross-border filings and is worth checking before any filing strategy is drawn up.

Who can apply — and why one application means one class

Any person, company or firm — Nepalese or foreign — may apply for a trademark in Nepal. There is no requirement that the applicant already be using the mark, which makes filing a sensible early step for a brand that is about to launch.

The structural rule to internalise before anything else is Section 18A's class-by-class filing: one application covers one class. A company that sells packaged tea (Class 30), runs teahouses (Class 43) and exports (Class 35) files three applications, each with its own fee, its own examination and its own renewal. Multi-class applications, standard in many jurisdictions, are not how the system works here — budgeting 'one trademark' as one filing is the most common early planning error.

The document set differs by applicant. Domestic applicants attach company or industry registration, tax clearance and PAN. Foreign applicants file through a local agent under a notarised Power of Attorney, together with evidence of home-country registration or the priority documents where priority is claimed. The Power of Attorney is the document foreign filers most often get wrong — it must be notarised, and it should be in hand before the filing date, not chased afterwards.

• One application = one class = one fee (Section 18A) — plan the class list first
• No prior use required, but the applicant must intend to use the mark
• Foreign applicants: notarised POA + local agent — mandatory, not optional
• Priority from a first filing abroad can be claimed within 6 months (Paris Convention)

What can be registered — and what gets refused under Section 18

A trademark can consist of words, names, devices, labels or combinations of these — anything that distinguishes the goods or services of one undertaking from another. Words, logos, composite labels and stylised marks are the routine cases; the Act's wording is broad enough to cover the marks most businesses actually use.

Refusals cluster around Section 18. The commercially important ground is Section 18(1): the Department refuses a mark that is identical to, or deceptively similar to, an earlier mark for the same or similar goods or services. In a bilingual market this ground has a local twist — marks that sound alike across English and Devanagari scripts, or that match in transliteration, are treated as conflicting even when they share no identical spelling.

The remaining grounds refuse marks that are descriptive or generic for the goods, customary in trade, lacking distinctiveness, or offensive — and marks that falsely suggest a connection with the state, national emblems or international organisations. A specification drafted in generic terms ('quality goods at fair prices') invites the descriptive objection; a distinctive, invented or suggestive name generally does not.

• Section 18(1): identical or deceptively similar to an earlier mark — the dominant refusal ground, and the one a pre-filing search addresses
• Descriptive / generic: names that describe the product's quality, kind or origin cannot distinguish it
• Cross-script similarity: English ↔ Devanagari sound-alikes and transliterations count as confusingly similar
• Emblems and offense: state symbols, international organisation marks and immoral matter are refused outright

The filing process, step by step

The sequence below is the practical journey of a domestic application with no objections. Every stage happens at, or is issued by, the Department of Industry.

1. 1

   Search before you spend

   Screen the proposed name against registered trademarks and pending published applications in your classes — including transliteration variants. Most doomed applications were doomed on filing day; the search is what reveals it while changing course is still free.

   Run the free Trademark Word Search
2. 2

   Fix the class and the specification

   Identify the Nice class or classes that cover what you actually sell, and draft the specification wording — the list of goods or services — precisely. Over-broad or generic wording invites objection; wording that is too narrow leaves parts of your business unprotected.

   Find the class with the NICE Class FinderDraft wording with the Goods & Services Writer
3. 3

   Prepare the Schedule 1(c) application

   The application form is Schedule 1(c): applicant details, the mark, the class and the specification. Four printed specimens of the mark (in practice, labels of about 8×8 cm) accompany the form, together with the applicant's document set — or the notarised POA for a foreign filing.

   Generate the Schedule 1(c) form
4. 4

   File and pay the application fee

   The application is submitted class by class with the fee per class — NPR 1,000 per application at the statutory rate. The Department records the filing (the darta date) and examination begins.

5. 5

   Examination and response

   The DoI examines formality and substance: whether the mark falls within Section 18's refusal grounds and, above all, whether an identical or deceptively similar earlier mark exists. Objections are issued in writing; they are answered, or the application is amended, within the stated period. A slow response here is a common way to lose months.

6. 6

   Publication and the opposition window

   An accepted application is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, opening the window in which any interested party may oppose — about 90 days (roughly three months) from publication. Unopposed marks proceed; opposed ones enter a separate opposition proceeding.

   Count the window with the Opposition Countdown
7. 7

   Registration and certificate

   When the window closes without opposition, the registration fee — NPR 5,000 per class — is paid, the mark enters the register, and the certificate issues. The term is 7 years from registration, and the renewal clock starts on the same date.

Fees, term and the renewal clock

Official fees are fixed in Schedule 3 of the Act and Rules, charged per application, per class. The two fees that define a standard registration are the application fee (NPR 1,000 at filing) and the registration fee (NPR 5,000 after acceptance, before the certificate). A mark filed in three classes therefore costs 3 × NPR 6,000 in government fees across the journey — before any professional fees.

The term runs 7 years from the registration date, and is renewable indefinitely in further 7-year terms under Section 23B — trademark navikaran (नवीकरण). Renewal is due within 35 days of the term expiring at the normal fee; a further six-month grace period is available on payment of the NPR 1,000 late fine. If the grace period also lapses, the registration is cancelled automatically — and the mark becomes available for anyone to apply for.

Two more obligations keep a registration healthy. First, use: a mark not brought into use within one year of registration can be the subject of a Department inquiry and cancellation under Section 18C — keep dated evidence of use. Second, recordals: transfers (Section 21D, NPR 2,000 for a trademark) and name or address changes (NPR 1,000) should be recorded so the register points to the true owner when renewals, oppositions or enforcement arrive.

Timelines and the failure points that cost applicants months

An unopposed domestic application commonly registers in roughly six to twelve months: formality and substantive examination take time, the Bulletin publishes on the Department's own rhythm, and the ~90-day opposition window runs from publication regardless of everything else. Objections, oppositions or a defective document set stretch the timeline — sometimes by a year or more.

The failure points are consistent enough to list. They are also, conveniently, all preventable at the start.

• Skipping the search — filing into a Section 18(1) conflict that was visible on the register before the fee was paid
• Wrong or too many classes — protection that misses the actual business, or fees paid for classes the specification cannot support
• Generic specification wording — inviting a descriptive objection that months of correspondence could have avoided
• Incomplete documents — especially a missing or un-notarised Power of Attorney for foreign applicants
• Slow objection responses — examination letters left unanswered until deadlines pass
• No watch after filing — a conflicting application published during your own window (or after registration) going unnoticed until the deadline has lapsed

Foreign applicants: the national route, the POA and priority

Because Nepal is outside the Madrid System, a foreign brand cannot extend an international registration here. Protection requires a national application at the Department of Industry, filed through a local agent under a notarised Power of Attorney. Evidence of home registration, or of use, may support the application; where the brand is new to Nepal, none is strictly required to file.

The Paris Convention priority right is the one international lever available: an application filed in Nepal within six months of the first filing in another Paris Convention country can claim the earlier date as its priority date — which matters in a first-to-file system, where the effective date decides who is 'earlier' when two similar applications meet. After six months, the right is gone.

Foreign proprietors should also plan the post-registration mechanics from the start: renewal fees, recordals and any opposition action all run through the local agent, and the register correspondence follows the Nepali address of record rather than the overseas head office.

• No Madrid route — national filing only, via a local agent with a notarised POA
• Claim Paris Convention priority within 6 months of the first filing abroad
• First-to-file means the priority date is usually the whole argument in a conflict
• Renewals and recordals route through the agent of record — keep that relationship current

Quick answers

The questions applicants raise most, answered from the framework above.

Where a registration goes from here

Registration is a milestone, not a finish line. The rights are only as strong as the discipline behind them: renewals filed inside the 35-day window, use documented from year one, transfers and licences recorded as they happen, and the Bulletin watched so that a later conflicting application is met while opposition is still possible — not discovered after registration, when only cancellation remains.

That last layer is the one registrations cannot supply for themselves. A structured watch over Nepal's published applications is what turns a certificate into a defended brand.