In Nepal, "registering a brand" can mean four different things, and three of them give you no rights in the name. Only a trade mark registered at the Department of Industry does that. This page explains the difference, then what the law actually asks of you.
Key takeaways
- A company at the Office of the Company Registrar, a domain and a social handle are useful. None protects the brand.
- Sec. 2(c) lets any firm, company or individual own a mark, so incorporation is not a statutory precondition.
- Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category of goods or services.
- Sec. 18C cancels a registered mark not brought into use within one year of registration.
- The word "distinctive" appears nowhere in the Act. Refusal for a descriptive name is examination practice.
- Sec. 18D gives seven years, renewable without limit under Sec. 23B — the only right in the Act with no cap.
What do people actually mean by registering a brand?
Usually one of four separate transactions, done at four separate places, for four separate purposes. Mixing them up is the most expensive mistake a new Nepali business makes.
| What you register | Where | What it gives you | What it does not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade mark | Department of Industry | Title to the mark itself | Cover for unfiled classes. |
| Company or firm | Office of the Company Registrar | A legal entity that can trade | Any right in the name. |
| Domain name | A domain registrar | A web address you control | Any right offline. |
| Social handle | The platform | A username on that platform | Anything the platform can revoke. |
The confusion is understandable. Three are quick and obviously needed to start trading, while the fourth takes months and produces nothing a customer can see. That is why it gets postponed until a competitor forces the issue.
Do all four. Just do not assume the first three have done the work of the fourth. Our note on locking down a name across all of them sets out the order.
Does the Act require a company before you can file?
No. Sec. 2(c) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 defines a trade mark as a word, symbol or picture, or a combination, used by "any firm, company or individual" to distinguish its products or services from those of others.
An individual can hold a registered mark. In practice the counter will ask for business documents, and Sec. 16(1) speaks of title to "the trade-mark of his business", so the mark is expected to attach to a trading activity. But the statute does not make incorporation a precondition, and that is worth knowing if you are a sole trader.
The distinction matters most for a sole trader who later incorporates. The mark stays with whoever is named on the register until it is formally moved, so a founder who files personally and then builds a company has created a gap between the two.
Whoever files should be whoever will own it long-term. Moving a registration later means a joint application under Sec. 21D, which is more work than getting it right once.
When can the Department refuse your brand?
Sec. 18(1) carries a proviso with five grounds, and they are narrower than most people expect. A mark is refused if it may hurt the prestige of any individual or institution, adversely affect public conduct or morality, undermine the national interest, undermine the reputation of another person's trade mark, or has already been registered to someone else.
Read that list again. There is no ground for a name being generic, descriptive or weak.
Is there a distinctiveness test in Nepali law?
Not written into the Act. We counted it: the word distinctive appears zero times across the consolidated text. The closest the statute comes is the definition itself, which says a mark is used "to distinguish" one trader's products from another's.
That matters in two directions. A purely descriptive name is still a bad commercial choice, because it is hard to enforce and easy for competitors to use honestly. But if an application is refused on descriptiveness, the ground sits in examination practice rather than in a section you can point to, so ask for the reasoning in writing.
The practical guidance has not changed: an invented or arbitrary word gives you a stronger case than a dictionary description of your own goods. Our note on naming a startup you can register works through it.
Why does one brand need several applications?
Because Sec. 18A(2) says so: a separate application must be submitted to register marks for goods or services placed in different categories. One application, one class.
Sec. 18A(1) lets the Government classify goods and services by notification in the Nepal Gazette, which is how Nepal uses the NICE classification of 45 classes without being party to the classification treaty. Classes 1 to 34 are goods and 35 to 45 are services. Start with the class finder, then check the wording.
Which classes are already crowded?
Our extraction of all 122 Industrial Property Bulletin issues holds 71,536 published marks, and they are not spread evenly. Class 30 — coffee, tea, confectionery and grain foods — alone carries 10,728, about one in seven.
Classes 33, 3, 5 and 35 follow. Clothing in Class 25 is ninth with 2,689. Service classes as a whole hold only 17% of the register, so a service brand often clears more easily than a food brand with the same name.
Crowding is not a reason to avoid a class, but it is a reason to search properly before you print anything. You can look at the published entries yourself through our trade mark search.
What happens if you register and never use it?
You lose it. Sec. 18C is short and unforgiving: where a registered trade mark "is not brought into use within one year from the date of registration thereof", the Department shall conduct inquiries and cancel the registration.
That rules out a defensive filing strategy of parking names for later. It also means a brand launch delayed past the first anniversary of registration has a real legal problem alongside its commercial one. The Act does not define what counts as use, so keep dated evidence of sales, packaging, invoices and advertising from the start.
How long does a registered brand last?
Sec. 18D gives seven years from the date of registration. Sec. 23B allows renewal within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on payment of a fine, after which the registration is automatically cancelled.
The trade mark is the one right in the Act with no ceiling. Sec. 23B(3) caps a patent and a design at two renewals each, but allows a trade mark to be renewed "any number of times for a period of seven years at a time". Handled properly, a brand right is perpetual.
Our renewal calculator turns a registration date into the dates that matter. Each renewal term has to be applied for; nothing happens automatically.
When may you call your brand registered?
Only after registration, and the rule has teeth. Sec. 18B states plainly that no trade mark may be used as a registered trade mark without registering it at the Department.
Sec. 19 backs it with a fine and confiscation of the goods connected with the offence, on the order of the Department, according to the gravity of the offence. Printing the ® symbol on packaging before the registration certificate exists is therefore not a harmless shortcut.
Where does the opposition window fit?
After the Department accepts the mark, it is published, and the publication opens a window in which anyone can object. For trade marks, Department practice works to a 90-day opposition period counted from publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin, while Sec. 21A(2) of the Act sets 35 days.
Two consequences for a brand owner. Your own application is not safe on the day it publishes, so do not schedule a launch on that date. And a competitor's conflicting mark is challengeable only inside that window, which is why our opposition and enforcement service is staffed rather than automated.
If you watch for conflicts yourself, work from our checklist for new businesses. The Bulletin is the only place the window starts running from.
Can a foreign owner rely on a home brand registration?
No. Sec. 21B says title to a trade mark registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here, and Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so no international registration designates it. WIPO publishes the party list.
Sec. 21C is the helpful part. The Department may register a foreign-registered mark without conducting any enquiries when the foreign certificate is enclosed, and extends Paris Convention facilities to the holder. Sec. 20 lets an owner appoint an attorney, which is how foreign filings are done in practice, with a notarised power of attorney.
Can you let a franchisee use your brand?
Yes, but not by contract alone. Sec. 21D(1) lets the owner transfer ownership or give written approval for use. Sub-section (2) then requires both parties to file a joint application with the Department, and sub-section (3) has the Department provide the approval.
On that wording the Department grants the permission rather than merely noting your agreement. A franchise or distribution deal that skips the joint application leaves the user exposed to Sec. 16(2) and Sec. 19.
What should you do before launch?
- Write down the exact mark. Word, logo or both, in the form you will actually use.
- Search the published register for identical and near-identical names in your class.
- Pick the classes honestly, based on what you sell now and will sell soon.
- Decide the owner before filing, not after investors ask.
- File, then print. Packaging and signage are sunk costs if the mark is refused.
- Start using it within the year, and keep dated evidence that you did.
The full filing sequence, from examination through publication to certificate, is set out on our trademark registration service page.
What would this look like for a real business?
Imagine a Lalitpur founder launching "Sunkoshi" as a packaged tea, with a shop and a café to follow. This is an illustration, not a real case.
Registering Sunkoshi Pvt. Ltd. at the Company Registrar gives her a company and no brand right. The tea is Class 30, the most crowded class in Nepal's register, so clearance there is the hard work. The shop and café are separate classes and separate applications under Sec. 18A(2). If she registers all three and the café does not open for eighteen months, that registration is exposed under Sec. 18C.
Our search and clearance team runs this class by class before anything is filed, because Nepal is first-to-file and the queue position is decided on the day the application lands.
Common mistakes that weaken a Nepali brand
- Believing the company registration protects the name. It creates an entity, nothing more.
- Filing one class and assuming it covers the rest of the business.
- Registering a name and then delaying launch past the Sec. 18C one-year mark.
- Using ® before the certificate, which Sec. 18B prohibits and Sec. 19 penalises.
- Letting a franchisee use the mark without the Sec. 21D joint application.
- Relying on a foreign registration. Sec. 21B says it is not valid here.
- Searching only the exact spelling and ignoring near-identical names.
- Filing in a founder's personal name when the company will own the business.
In short, what is brand registration in Nepal?
It is a trade mark application at the Department of Industry, one per class, filed before you spend money on the name, used within a year and renewed every seven. Everything else you register is useful infrastructure. Only this one is the brand.
People also search for
- How to protect a business name in Nepal
- A brand-protection checklist for new businesses
- How to protect intellectual property in Nepal
- Protecting a restaurant or café brand
- Protecting a packaged food brand
- Protecting a clothing brand
- IP protection for exporters
If the name is already on a sign, you are behind, and if it is not yet on anything, this is the cheapest week to protect it. Read the statutory wording at the Nepal Law Commission, check the Department's current forms at doind.gov.np, and contact our team for a view on your own mark and classes.
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