25 Facts About Industrial Design You Should Know

Nepal's industrial design law is short. The Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 gives designs four sections of their own, plus a handful shared with patents and trade marks. These 25 facts separate what the Act actually says from what is Department of Industry practice.

Key takeaways

• Sec. 2(b) defines a design as "the form or shape of any material manufactured in any manner" — nine words.
• The words ornament, pattern, configuration, colour and appearance appear zero times in the Act.
• Sec. 14 lists only four grounds for refusing a design, and a novelty test is not one of them.
• Sec. 21A publishes designs already registered — on the Act's wording, publication follows registration.
• Sec. 14A gives five years, and Sec. 23B(3) allows renewal not more than twice: fifteen years maximum.
• Nepal is outside the Hague System, so a foreign design filing never reaches Nepal by itself.

What does Nepal's law actually call a design?

The definition is the first surprise. Sec. 2(b) says a design "means the form or shape of any material manufactured in any manner" — and stops there.

Fact 1. Design is a defined term, and the definition is purely about form or shape.

Fact 2. The design must attach to something manufactured. A drawing with no article behind it has nothing to sit on.

Fact 3. Nothing in the definition restricts the material, the industry or the production method.

Which design words does the Act never use?

Most pages about Nepali design protection borrow their vocabulary from other countries. We counted the terms over the consolidated text, and the result is worth knowing before you rely on one.

Fact 4.Ornament, pattern, configuration, colour, aesthetic and appearance each occur zero times in the whole Act.

Fact 5. The word opposition also occurs zero times. What the profession calls the opposition window is, in the Act's own language, a complaint.

This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to ask an advocate how the Department reads Sec. 2(b) in practice, rather than assuming a surface pattern is covered because it would be elsewhere.

Who gets title to a registered design?

Title is created by registration, not by creation. That single point decides most ownership arguments.

Fact 6. Under Sec. 12(1) a person acquires title to a design "upon registration under Section 14". Making the article first gives you nothing by itself.

Fact 7. Sec. 12(2) bars anyone else from copying or using a registered design without a transfer of ownership or written permission under Sec. 21D.

What goes into a design application?

Sec. 13(1) is specific about the packet, and the number catches people out.

Fact 8. The application takes the Schedule 1(b) form together with four copies of the design, plus maps, drawings and particulars.

Fact 9. An application fee is payable under Sec. 13(2), and a separate fee under Sec. 14(2) before the registration certificate issues.

The Act says nothing about a power of attorney, yet the Department expects a notarised one whenever an agent files. Beyond that, the Act is silent on how the drawings should look. The views you file still define what you can later point to, so prepare them as carefully as if the statute demanded it.

Does the Department test a design for novelty?

Not in the words of Sec. 14. The section says the Department "shall register the design in the name of the applicant and issue a certificate", then adds a proviso with four refusal grounds.

Fact 10. A design is refused if it hurts the prestige of any individual or institution.

Fact 11. It is refused if it adversely affects public conduct or morality.

Fact 12. It is refused if it undermines the national interest.

Fact 13. It is refused if it has already been registered in the name of another person. That is the closest the Act comes to a novelty rule, and it is a register check, not a search of the market.

Compare Sec. 5, which for patents expressly asks whether the invention "is a new invention or not". Designs have no equivalent sentence. In practice the DoI does examine originality, and our advocate notes describe a notarised originality statement in the filing packet — but that is practice, not the text.

How does a design registration actually proceed?

Read in order, the sections give a sequence that differs from the one most articles describe.

1. File under Sec. 13. Form, four copies, maps, drawings, particulars and the application fee.
2. Departmental review. The DoI checks the packet and the Sec. 14 refusal grounds, and in practice looks at originality.
3. Registration and certificate. Sec. 14(1) registers the design and issues the Schedule 2(b) certificate once the Sec. 14(2) fee is paid.
4. Publication under Sec. 21A(1). The Department publishes designs registered under Sec. 14, for public information.
5. The 35-day window. Sec. 21A(2) lets anyone object by complaint within 35 days of that publication.
6. Inquiry. The Department "shall take necessary Actions after holding inquiries into such complaints".

Fact 14. On the Act's wording, publication comes after registration for designs, exactly as Sec. 7A does for patents.

What is the 35-day window, and who can use it?

Sec. 21A(2) opens it to "any one who has any objection to the particulars published". There is no standing test and no requirement to own a competing right.

Fact 15. The clock is 35 days from the date of publication, not from the date you learned about the design.

Fact 16. The same sub-section covers designs and trade marks together. Our own archive of 122 Industrial Property Bulletin issues and 71,536 entries is a trade mark record, so a design is not found by searching our trade mark database.

If a published design worries you, the clock is short and the response is a staffed job. Our opposition and enforcement team can assess it; we do not offer an automated public alert product.

How long does a registered design last?

This is the fact most live pages get wrong, because the governing sentence is interrupted by footnote markers in the Law Commission text and reads as if it concerns patents only.

Fact 17. Sec. 14A gives a design five years from the date of registration.

Fact 18. Sec. 23B requires renewal within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on payment of a fine. Miss both and the registration "shall automatically cancelled".

Fact 19. Sec. 23B(3) allows a design to be renewed not more than twice, five years at a time. The ceiling is fifteen years, and it cannot be extended.

Our renewal calculator handles the dates, and our renewal team files them. The cap is what to plan around: once the second renewal term ends, a design that still sells in year sixteen has no statutory protection left.

What happens if someone copies a registered design?

Sec. 15 handles it, and the remedy is administrative rather than a court action in the first instance.

Fact 20. A person who breaches Sec. 12(2) may be fined, and the articles and goods connected with the offence are confiscated on the order of the Department, as per the gravity of the offence.

Fact 21. Sec. 25 lets the Department order compensation to a holder who has suffered losses. Sec. 27 allows an appeal to the Appellate Court within 35 days.

Can a foreign owner rely on a home design registration?

No, and the Act says so directly. Read Sec. 21B and Sec. 21C together before planning an entry into Nepal.

Fact 22. Sec. 21B: title to a design registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here.

Fact 23. Sec. 21C: the Department may register a foreign-registered design without conducting any enquiries if the foreign certificate is enclosed, and extends Paris Convention facilities to the holder.

Nepal is not a party to the Hague System, so there is no international design filing that designates Nepal. A direct national filing is the only route, usually through a local representative. The World Intellectual Property Organization publishes the party lists if you want to check the position yourself.

What else does the Act give a design holder?

Three short provisions that rarely appear in guides, and all three are useful.

Fact 24. Sec. 21D lets the owner transfer the design or approve its use in writing — but owner and user must file a joint application, and the Department provides the approval and issues a note.

Fact 25. Sec. 22 keeps a separate register of designs, and Sec. 24 lets you buy a replacement certificate if yours is lost.

Which of these facts is law and which is practice?

Both matter, and conflating them is how a filing plan goes wrong. The Act is the floor; the Department's counter is where your application actually lands.

Statute: the definition, the four-copy packet, the four refusal grounds, the five-year term with two renewals, the 35-day complaint and the Sec. 15 penalty. Practice: an originality examination, a notarised originality statement, a notarised power of attorney, and the expected drawing views.

Timelines are practice too. We do not publish an end-to-end figure for designs. The 12 to 14 month estimate you may have read on this site and others is sourced for trade marks, and we have no comparable design data, so treat any design timeline as a question for the Department of Industry.

What would this look like for a Nepali product?

Imagine a Bhaktapur workshop that launches a copper water jug with an unusual twisted body. This is an illustration, not a real case.

The twisted body is a form or shape of a manufactured material, so Sec. 2(b) fits comfortably. The engraved motif on its surface is the harder question, because the Act never mentions ornament. The jug's name and logo are a separate matter entirely, handled by trademark registration in the right NICE classification class.

If the jug also uses a new sealing mechanism, that is a patent question under Sec. 5, not a design one. Our industrial design filing team can map which right covers which feature before anything is filed.

Common mistakes: what trips up a design filing?

• Assuming a design is examined for novelty because it is elsewhere. Sec. 14 lists four grounds and that is all.
• Treating five years as renewable forever. Sec. 23B(3) stops at two renewals.
• Filing drawings that show the article but not the feature claimed as the design.
• Believing a foreign or "international" design registration reaches Nepal. Sec. 21B says it does not.
• Letting a freelancer keep ownership of the design work, then filing in the company's name.
• Waiting until a copy appears on the market. First-to-file rewards the earlier applicant.
• Searching the trade mark register for a design. Use owner search for marks, not designs.

In short, what should you take away?

Nepal's design law is small enough to read in one sitting, and reading it changes the plan. The subject matter is narrower than most guides say, the examination is lighter, the publication comes later and the protection ends at fifteen years. Build the filing around those four facts and the rest follows.

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If your product's shape is worth money to you, the cheapest moment to protect it is before it reaches a shelf. Read the statutory wording at the Nepal Law Commission, browse our other guides at the IP Sewa blog, and contact our team to work out which right fits which part of your product.