10 Everyday Products That Began as Patents

Aspirin, the safety razor and the zipper all began as patents, each filed by a named inventor or company. Every one of those patents has long expired. In Nepal, the Department of Industry grants patents under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965, for a term of seven years.

Key takeaways

• Three clear examples: aspirin (Felix Hoffmann, for Bayer), the safety razor (King Camp Gillette) and the zipper (Gideon Sundback).
• Most of these patents are held by a company, not the inventor, because the inventor assigned the rights.
• A Nepali patent runs seven years and may be renewed twice, so twenty-one years is the ceiling.
• Nepal is not in the Patent Cooperation Treaty, so there is no single filing that reaches it.
• Nepal's Department of Industry has recorded 90 patents in total, against roughly 70,970 trademarks.
• A patent covers how a thing works. The name on the box is a separate right that can outlive it.

Which everyday products have patents, and who invented them?

The table below lists ten, with the person or company behind each and the filing that is usually treated as the landmark. Patent numbers are given where a single filing can be pointed to.

Why do the last two rows have no patent number?

Because there is no single filing to name. A wireless radio link or a touch interface rests on dozens of patents held by several companies at once.

That is normal for modern electronics and unusual for a razor. The older entries are one mechanism, one document, one owner.

So when you are told a product is "patented", ask which patent, in which country, and whether it is still in force.

What did the earliest of these patents actually claim?

Hoffmann's US patent claimed a way of making acetylsalicylic acid in a stable, usable form. The chemical was not new. The manufacturing route was.

Gillette's claimed a holder that kept a very thin blade rigid while shaving. Blades were old. Holding a disposable one steady was the invention.

Sundback's claimed interlocking teeth on a tape, so two edges could be joined and parted repeatedly. The zipper on your bag is that mechanism.

Why does a company's name appear instead of the inventor's?

Because inventors assign their rights. Hoffmann's US patent names him as inventor and Bayer's predecessor as assignee.

Sundback's 1917 filing went to the Hookless Fastener Company. Spencer worked at Raytheon; Silver at 3M. The employer files and owns.

The same question arises in Nepal. An employment contract or an assignment decides who may apply, not who had the idea at the bench.

Settle it before you file. Nepal is first-to-file, and an ownership argument is slow to have while a deadline runs.

What is a patent, in plain terms?

A patent is a time-limited right over a new and useful invention, given in exchange for describing how the invention works.

The description goes on the public record and anyone may read it. What they may not do, during the term, is make or sell it.

That trade sits at the centre of the whole system. You disclose, and in return you get a defined period of control.

What does a patent not cover?

It does not cover an idea, a business plan or a name. "A better water filter" is not an invention until it is a specific, described mechanism.

Nor does it cover the look of a product. Shape, pattern and ornament belong to industrial design registration, a separate filing.

And it does not cover the brand. Our guide to the four rights and what each protects sets out where the lines fall.

What happened when these patents expired?

Anyone could copy the invention. That is not a loophole but the bargain working as designed.

Generic acetylsalicylic acid is sold worldwide by makers who never paid Bayer. Zippers come from thousands of factories. Nobody needs a licence.

So the term is not a detail. It is the shape of the whole deal, and the number to plan around from day one.

Why does the hook-and-loop fastener still have a protected name?

Because the patent and the brand ran on different clocks. De Mestral filed in Switzerland in 1951 and the patent was granted in 1954, according to WIPO's account of the story.

That patent expired decades ago, which is why anyone may make hook-and-loop tape. WIPO records the company has since filed over 2,100 patent applications and holds more than 1,300 registered trademarks.

The invention entered the public domain on schedule. The name did not, because a trademark can be renewed without limit.

Could any of these have been patented in Nepal?

In principle yes, but never on the same terms. Nepal's patent runs seven years from registration under Sec. 8 of the 1965 Act.

It may be renewed twice under Sec. 23B. Twenty-one years is the outer limit, which surprises readers who expect twenty.

Novelty is the harder point. All ten were published long ago, so none is new anywhere today. Our guide to what can be patented in Nepal works through the test.

Is there such a thing as an international patent?

No. There is no patent that covers the world, only national patents and treaties that make filing in several countries tidier.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty is the main one. WIPO's own list of PCT contracting states, dated 19 May 2026, records 159 of them, and Nepal is not among them.

India joined in 1998 and China in 1994, so the route exists next door. Nepal's WIPO Lex profile lists only the WIPO Convention, Paris and Berne.

So a Nepali inventor files country by country, exactly as de Mestral did in 1951. Our guide to filing abroad from Nepal sets out the sequence.

How many patents has Nepal actually recorded?

Ninety. That is the cumulative total in the Economic Survey 2082/83, Annex 8.3, attributed to the Department of Industry, to Falgun 2082.

The same table records roughly 70,970 trademarks. Nepali business protects brands constantly and inventions almost never.

Read that as an opening rather than a warning. The Nepal patent statistics show a field with very little in it.

What does the Department of Industry look for?

Two things, under Sec. 5: whether the invention is new, and whether it is useful to the general public. The DoI may take expert advice.

Sec. 6 lists the refusal grounds: already registered to someone else, an applicant with no title, harm to public health or morality, or conflict with Nepali law.

The Act's full text sits on the Nepal Law Commission site, and our note on what cannot be patented covers the exclusions.

How do you file a patent in Nepal?

The sequence is short to describe and slow to do well. Most of the work sits in the specification, not the form.

1. Keep it confidential. No launch, no demonstration, no social post. Public disclosure before filing damages novelty and cannot be undone.
2. Search the prior art. Earlier published inventions anywhere in the world count. Our patent search guide explains why a web search is not a search.
3. Write the specification and claims. The specification teaches someone how to build it. The claims draw the boundary you can later enforce.
4. File at the Department of Industry. The Schedule 1(a) form names the inventor, explains how the applicant acquired title, and describes the process or formula.
5. Answer the examination. The DoI asks questions. You may clarify, but you cannot add new subject matter that was not filed.
6. Clear the objection period. A registered patent is published, and an interested person may object within 35 days.
7. Collect the registration certificate. Then track two renewal deadlines across the next fourteen years.

Our patent registration service handles the drafting, the filing and the examination replies. Whether an invention qualifies is a question of fact, and we say so before we file.

What documents does the Department of Industry need?

The application form, a specification with claims, drawings where the invention needs them, and a notarised power of attorney if an agent files.

A foreign applicant claiming priority adds certified copies of the earlier filing. Confirm the current list with the Department of Industry before assembling a file.

Cost has two halves, official fees and professional work, and the drafting is what varies. Ask us through contact for a current assessment.

How long does protection last once it is granted?

Seven years from the date of registration. Two renewals of seven years each are allowed, so twenty-one years is the maximum any Nepali patent can reach.

Renewal is filed within 35 days of expiry. A six-month late window follows on payment of a fine, after which the registration lapses automatically.

Nobody sends you a reminder from the register. Our patent renewal guide sets out how the dates are counted.

What happens between filing and the certificate?

The DoI examines, and then publishes. Under Sec. 7A a registered patent is published, except where it is kept secret in the national interest.

Anyone may inspect or copy it on payment of a fee, and may object within 35 days. That window is much shorter than the 90 days used for trademarks.

The Nepal patent application process covers each stage. Expect many months, and treat any promised date as an estimate.

What would one of these products need in Nepal today?

Picture a Pokhara workshop that builds a solar fruit dryer with a new airflow baffle. This is an illustration, not a real case.

The baffle is the candidate for a patent, if it is genuinely new. The cabinet's distinctive shape may support an industrial design registration instead.

The name on the front is a third filing. Trademark registration is what stops a competitor selling a different dryer under the same name.

Before any of it, check what is already on the register. Our free Nepal trademark search covers marks published in DoI bulletins.

Common mistakes

• Launching first and filing later. Novelty is judged against what the public already knows, including what you showed them.
• Assuming a foreign patent covers Nepal. It does not. Protection here needs a Nepali filing, and there is no PCT route in.
• Writing one narrow claim. Describe the variations you can foresee. A competitor who changes one detail should still be inside the boundary.
• Leaving ownership unwritten. Decide in advance whether the inventor or the company will own the application, and put it in writing.
• Using the ® symbol early. It belongs to a registered mark. "Patent pending" is also not a grant.
• Forgetting the second renewal. Twenty-one years only happens if two deadlines are met, fourteen years apart.

In short

Ten ordinary products, ten named inventors or companies, and in most cases one document you can still read today. None was obvious at the time.

Nepal's version of that bargain is shorter than most: seven years, renewable twice, filed nationally because no international route reaches here.

If you are building something and wondering whether it can be filed, ask before you launch. Our patent team will tell you either way.

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A working prototype and no filing is the moment to take advice, not the moment to post a photograph of it — contact our team and we will tell you what is still possible.