Somewhere in the world, a smell, a roar, a shade of blue and the swing of a car door have all been accepted as trade marks. None is a word or a picture, which is the point, and why Nepal is a harder place to try it.
Key takeaways
- The famous "weird trademark" examples are widely reported, and each was granted by one office under one country's law.
- Nepal's Sec. 2(c) defines a trade mark as a word, symbol, or picture or a combination thereof, which names nothing sensory.
- Our index of published Nepali marks contains exactly three formats: word-only, device-only and word-and-device.
- Distinctiveness, not strangeness, is what the Department of Industry actually tests.
- The Sec. 18 proviso adds reputation, morality and national interest as refusal grounds.
- A product shape may be better suited to a design filing than a trade mark one.
- Nepal is first-to-file, so an unusual idea is worth nothing until somebody files it.
What counts as a weird trademark?
Any brand sign that is not a word, a logo or a slogan. Lawyers call these non-traditional marks, covering sound, colour, shape, position, movement, pattern and scent.
They test what a trade mark is for. A sign earns protection only when a customer reads it as saying who made the product, and a smell works harder at that than a name. Offices disagree where the line falls, and Nepal never drew it.
Which ten unusual marks get cited most often?
These ten appear in almost every list, and each stands for a different kind of sign rather than a one-off curiosity.
- A mobile ringtone. Nokia's melody is the standard example of a sound working like a name.
- A studio's lion roar. MGM's opening sound attaches an audio sign to a catalogue of films.
- A bottle silhouette. The Coca-Cola contour identifies the product with the label removed.
- A chocolate bar's peaks. Toblerone's prism is the classic product-shape claim.
- A shade of packaging blue. Tiffany's box colour is the usual colour-alone example.
- Orange tool handles. Fiskars' scissors show colour applied to the product itself.
- A red shoe sole. Louboutin's claim is a position mark: colour in one place.
- A door that swings upward. Lamborghini's doors are cited as a motion mark.
- A modelling compound's smell. The Play-Doh scent is the best-known scent claim.
- A word that means nothing. A coined term carries no descriptive baggage, so it is distinctive.
How reliable are those examples?
Treat each as reported rather than checked. We have not verified them against the registers concerned, and neither has most of what is written about them online.
Three things move underneath such a claim. Registrations lapse, they are cancelled on challenge, and the granted scope is far narrower than the headline suggests.
So the useful part of the list is the type, not the anecdote. If an example matters to a decision you are taking, look it up in that office's own register first.
Can you register a sound or a smell in Nepal?
Start with the words the Act uses. Sec. 2(c) defines a trade mark as a word, symbol, or picture or a combination thereof, used by any firm, company or individual to distinguish its products or services from others.
That names nothing sensory. There is no non-traditional category in the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965, and Sec. 17 asks for four specimens, which assumes something you can put on paper.
The honest answer is that the route is not provided for, rather than banned. Whether a sensory sign could be argued into "symbol" is a legal-effect question, and it belongs with an advocate.
What does Nepal's own published record contain?
Three formats and nothing else. Across the 122 Industrial Property Bulletin issues we had indexed by September 2026, all 71,536 published entries are printed as a word mark, a device mark, or both combined.
Combined marks make up 45,394 entries, word-only 23,269, and device-only 2,873. There is no fourth column, because the published record has never needed one.
These are IP Sewa counts of published entries, not official Department of Industry statistics, and show no registration status. Browse them through the trademark database search.
What does the Department test instead?
Whether the sign distinguishes, and whether it collides with something else. Sec. 18(1) has the Department examine the application, hear the applicant, and register the mark if it thinks it appropriate.
Its proviso is the refusal list, and it is broad. A mark may be refused where it hurts the prestige of any individual or institution, adversely affects public conduct or morality, undermines the national interest, or damages another's trade mark reputation.
Being already registered to someone else is the fifth ground. Under Sec. 18(3) the Department may also cancel a registration on those grounds, after giving the holder a chance to show cause.
Why is distinctiveness the real hurdle?
Because strangeness and distinctiveness are different qualities. A sign is distinctive when customers treat it as saying who made the product, and unusual packaging often does not.
The famous sensory examples cleared that bar through decades of exposure, not because they were odd. The oddness came free; the recognition took a generation.
Which is why an unusual sign is rarely a shortcut. Our note on why applications are rejected covers the grounds that actually bite.
Is a similar mark already on the Nepali register?
Worth checking early, because an unusual sign is easy to fall in love with. Similarity is judged on overall impression, so a close device blocks a clever one.
Search the words, then look at devices published in the same category. The marks by class browser and our clearance service approach it from opposite ends.
How would you represent an unusual sign on the form?
That is the practical wall. Sec. 17 requires four specimens alongside the prescribed application, and a specimen of a smell or a movement is not obvious to produce.
Reduced to a picture, an unusual idea stops being unusual in filing terms. A pattern, a container drawn as an image, or a colour shown on a depicted product are all pictures.
Where it cannot, drafting will not fix it at the counter. Take the representation question to an advocate before spending on the rest of the application.
Where does each kind of sign stand in Nepal?
The table reads the ten types against the Act's wording rather than foreign practice. It is a starting point for a conversation, not an opinion on any particular mark.
| Kind of sign | Reported example | The Nepal question |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | A ringtone or a studio roar | Not named in Sec. 2(c) |
| Scent | A modelling compound's smell | No way to file four specimens |
| Colour alone | A packaging blue | Not named; argue it as a symbol |
| Colour on a product | Orange tool handles | Easier if shown in a picture |
| Position | A red shoe sole | Depends on the drawing filed |
| Motion | A door swinging upward | No moving specimen exists |
| Product shape | A contour bottle | Consider a design filing instead |
| Packaging shape | A triangular bar | Consider a design filing instead |
| Pattern | A repeated graphic | A picture, so straightforward |
| Coined word | An invented term | A word, and inherently distinctive. |
Two rows point somewhere else entirely, which is the most useful thing in the table. A shape claim is often a design question rather than a trade mark one.
What are the alternatives if the sign will not register?
Look at what the shape or artwork is, not what you wanted to call it. The 1965 Act also covers designs, and Sec. 2(b) defines a design as the form or shape of any material manufactured in any manner.
A distinctive bottle, a moulded handle or an unusual container is squarely a form or shape, so our industrial design service is often the better route.
A logo also carries copyright in the artwork, which arises without registration. IP Sewa does not handle copyright filings, so send that question through contact and we will point you onward.
Which category would an unusual mark go in?
The same one the goods or services go in. Sec. 18A(1) lets the government adopt a classification by Nepal Gazette notification, and the Department applies the published NICE classification of 45 categories.
Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category, so an unusual sign used across several lines is several filings.
Work from the product list rather than the idea. The AI class classifier gives a first view of where a range sits.
How do you actually file it?
Through the ordinary route, because there is no special one.
- Reduce the sign to a picture. If that cannot be done, stop and take advice.
- Clear it. Run the words and device through the conflict checker before printing.
- Pick the categories. Since Sec. 18A(2) allows one per application, count them at the start.
- File the bundle. Sec. 17 asks for the prescribed application together with four specimens.
- Appoint a representative properly. Sec. 20 makes an attorney's acts your own, on a power of attorney.
- Answer the examination. Expect distinctiveness to be the question, not novelty.
- Follow it through publication to the registration certificate.
What happens after the Department accepts it?
It is published. Sec. 21A has the Department publish registered designs and trade marks, with particulars of renewal or cancellation, publicly.
A published trade mark can be opposed within a 90-day opposition window from its publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin; rely on the deadline the Department of Industry states and act before the last day.
An unusual mark attracts attention here, because a competitor who missed the application will notice the Bulletin.
How long does an unusual mark last?
The same seven years as any other. Sec. 18D runs the term from registration, not from filing, and the renewal term under Sec. 23B may be repeated.
Renewal falls due within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month window on payment of a fine before cancellation. Our renewal service tracks those dates.
Sec. 18C matters more here than usual, because a mark not brought into use within one year of registration can be cancelled after inquiry, and a novelty filing is the kind that never gets used.
Common mistakes
- Quoting a foreign registration as if it applied here. Rights are national.
- Confusing odd with distinctive. Only one of those is a legal test.
- Filing a sign you cannot depict. Sec. 17 wants four specimens.
- Using a trade mark form for a product shape. That is often a design.
- Filing a novelty you will not use. Sec. 18C can cancel it after a year.
- Launching first. Nepal is first-to-file, and an idea is not a filing.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Kathmandu tea company designs a hexagonal tin, commissions a three-note sound for its adverts, and wants to protect both.
The tin is the form or shape of a manufactured article, so a design filing fits it, and a drawing of it can support a device mark in the tea category.
The three-note sound has no specimen and no home in Sec. 2(c). Whether anything can be done with it is a question for an advocate, and the honest answer may be that nothing can.
What it should do first is neither: clear and file the name and the label, because those are the signs customers use to find it again.
In short
The famous weird trademarks are real enough as stories, each granted by one office under one law. None tells you what Nepal will accept.
Here the question is narrower. Sec. 2(c) names a word, a symbol and a picture, the published record holds only three formats, and distinctiveness decides the rest.
The Act is published by the Nepal Law Commission, the classification by WIPO, and applications are decided by the Department of Industry. The ordinary route is in how to register a trademark in Nepal.
People also search for
- What can be trademarked in Nepal
- What is a trademark in Nepal?
- Registering a logo as a trademark
- Choosing the right trademark class
- Trademark, trade name and company name
If you have an unusual sign and no idea which right fits, describe it to us and we will say whether it is a trade mark, a design, or neither. Start with trademark registration, or send the details through contact.
Comments (0)
Leave a comment
Replying to — cancel