Can I Trademark a Hashtag in Nepal?

In principle yes, because a hashtag is a sign like any other and the ordinary distinctiveness test decides it. The symbol adds nothing by itself, and posting a tag is not the same as using it as a mark. Out of more than 71,500 published Nepali marks, four contain a hash symbol.

Key takeaways

• The word "hashtag" appears zero times in the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965.
• There is no hashtag category, so your application is examined as an ordinary word or label mark.
• Sec. 2(c) requires the sign to distinguish your goods, and a common phrase distinguishes nothing.
• Only four published marks in our bulletin data contain a hash symbol, and only one leads with it.
• Using a tag in posts is evidence of promotion, not a registered right, and Nepal is first to file.
• Sec. 18C allows cancellation where a registered mark is not used within a year, which is a real risk for a campaign tag.
• The ® symbol before registration is prohibited by Sec. 18B, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine.

What does hashtag mean in Nepali?

There is no separate Nepali legal term for it. In ordinary Nepali writing the English word is simply transliterated, and the symbol keeps its familiar name.

The law's own vocabulary is different again. The Act's Nepali title uses ट्रेडमार्क for a trade mark, while the Department's application form is headed व्यापार चिन्ह with ट्रेडमार्क in brackets, so either term is official.

Does the Act mention hashtags at all?

No. Search the official English text for "hashtag" and you get nothing, which is unsurprising for a statute written in 1965.

The word "symbol" does appear once, inside the definition, listing what a mark may consist of. That is the entire basis for filing one.

Read the consolidation published by the Nepal Law Commission if you want to confirm it, because a good deal of online advice invents a category here.

So what actually decides it?

The definition in Sec. 2(c), which describes a word, symbol or picture used by a firm, company or individual on its goods or services "to distinguish them with the product or services of others".

Read that as a test. If the tag tells a customer whose goods these are it can work as a mark, and if it merely describes or cheers it cannot.

Our explainer on what a trade mark is in Nepal unpacks that definition in more detail.

What do Nepal's published marks actually show?

Very little appetite for hashtags, which is itself worth knowing before you plan around one. Across every mark published in the Department's bulletins, our database holds four entries containing a hash symbol.

Two are not hashtags at all. Levi Strauss holds WINGS & ANCHOR DESIGN # 3 in Class 18 and again in Class 25, where the hash is a model number.

A third, VSL#3, is a pharmaceutical mark in Class 5 held by an Italian company, where the symbol separates a code from a number.

That leaves one genuine hashtag. These are counts of entries published in official bulletins rather than live registration statuses.

What does the one real hashtag mark look like?

#BE A RACER, application 071848, a label mark in Class 12 held by an Italian vehicle manufacturer. It is the only published entry in our data that begins with a hash.

Two details are worth copying. It was filed as a label, so protection follows the designed form rather than a bare string of letters.

And it is short, memorable and attached to a product category, rather than a sentence describing the product. That is what gives it a chance of working as a sign.

You can look up who holds a similar name today with our owner search.

Does the hash symbol add anything?

Almost nothing on its own. It is a punctuation mark available to everyone, so it cannot be the distinctive part of anything.

Strip the hash from your tag and ask whether what is left could be registered. If the answer is no, adding it back does not rescue the application.

So #DhaloChiya might work as an invented pairing, while #BestMomoKathmandu is a claim plus a place that every rival needs.

Is posting a hashtag using it as a trade mark?

Not in the way that matters here. A tag in a caption is usually doing a search job, grouping posts by topic so people can find them.

Mark use is different. The sign appears on the goods, the packaging or the shopfront in a way that says who is responsible for them.

A tag can do both, and the strongest applications are for tags that already appear on labels and receipts rather than only in captions.

Why does first to file matter more than who posted first?

Because the Nepali system turns on the application, not on the timeline of a campaign. The earliest valid application is generally in the stronger position.

A tag that trends has been advertised to every competitor in the country, which is the worst moment to have filed nothing.

Check what is already published before you launch, in our register search or through our search service if the field looks close.

Which class does a hashtag go in?

The class of whatever you sell under it, because the Department classifies goods and services rather than marketing channels.

Do not file in Class 35 just because the tag appears in advertising. Work the list out first with our NICE class finder.

Why does one class mean one application?

Because the statute requires it. Sec. 18A(2) provides that a separate application shall be submitted to register trade marks of goods or services placed in different categories.

So a tag running across an app, a clothing line and a shop is three applications, not one campaign filing.

Our note on choosing the right class covers how to keep that list honest rather than aspirational.

Should you file the word or the label?

The word if the phrase itself is what people repeat, and the label if the designed form is what they recognise. The single published hashtag mark here is a label.

A word registration survives a redesign, while a label registration tracks the artwork and can be left behind by a rebrand.

Many brands end up with both, filed in the same class, and our note on registering a logo explains where the line falls.

What does the Department actually refuse?

Less than most people expect. Under the proviso to Sec. 18(1) a mark is refused where it may hurt the prestige of a person or institution, adversely affect public conduct or morality, undermine the national interest or the reputation of another's trade mark, or where it is already registered to someone else.

Descriptiveness is not a named ground in that list. The distinctiveness requirement sits in the definition in Sec. 2(c) instead, which is a fine point worth taking to an advocate if a refusal arrives.

Our guide to why applications are rejected covers how those grounds are used in practice.

How do you file, step by step?

1. Strip the hash and search. Check the words, near spellings and sound-alikes in the classes you care about before spending anything.
2. Decide word or label. Fix the exact form you will file, because that is what the registration covers.
3. Draft the goods. List what you genuinely sell under the tag, class by class.
4. File one application per category. Submit the application, the specimens and the supporting papers together.
5. Answer examination. Narrowing the goods often resolves a cited conflict faster than arguing about it.
6. Diary the publication. The opposition window opens when the mark appears in the Industrial Property Bulletin.

A foreign applicant also needs a notarised power of attorney and corporate authority papers, because Nepal sits outside the Madrid System and every filing here is national. WIPO publishes the membership tables if you want to check that.

What happens after publication?

An accepted mark is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and from that point anyone who thinks it clashes with theirs can object.

The Act's own wording at Sec. 21A refers to 35 days from publication, while trade mark practice is commonly described as allowing 90 days. Confirm the current period with the Department of Industry rather than relying on either figure.

If a rival files a near-identical tag, our opposition team can tell you quickly whether there is a case to run.

Will a campaign tag survive the non-use rule?

This is the question most hashtag articles miss, and it is the one that bites. Sec. 18C provides that where a registered mark is not brought into use within one year of registration, the Department shall inquire and cancel it.

Campaign tags are built to be temporary, so a seasonal phrase registered at its peak may be dead within the year.

So file the tags that have become part of the brand, and let the genuinely seasonal ones stay unregistered.

Can you write TM or ® next to a hashtag?

Not ®, until it is registered. Sec. 18B prohibits presenting a mark as registered when it is not, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods.

The ™ symbol has no status here at all. The Act never uses it as a notice, so writing it neither gains you a right nor, by itself, breaches anything.

The safer habit is to say nothing until the registration certificate exists, then use ® accurately.

What does a registration not stop?

Quite a lot. It does not stop ordinary conversation, commentary or criticism using the same words.

It does not reach goods outside your classes, it does not travel abroad, and it does not hand you the matching domain or account handle.

What it gives you is a documented basis for objecting when another trader uses a confusingly similar sign on similar goods, which our note on confusing similarity explains.

Common mistakes

• Filing a slogan every competitor also needs, then treating the refusal as unfair.
• Assuming an account handle is a registration. It is a username on somebody else's platform.
• Waiting for the tag to trend before filing, which is waiting until everyone has seen it.
• Registering the campaign tag and letting it lapse into disuse within the year.
• Filing the label only, when the words are what people actually type.
• Putting ® on merchandise before the certificate exists.

A worked example

Picture a Pokhara coffee roaster whose #ChiyaBreak posts have taken off and who now prints the tag on cups and bags. This is an illustration, not a real case.

Stripping the hash leaves "Chiya Break", which is two ordinary words describing a tea break, so the roaster coins #ChiyaKoBela instead and tests it on packaging first.

A search shows nothing close in Class 30 or Class 43, so two applications are prepared rather than one.

The word mark is filed, the designed cup version is added as a label mark, and the tag goes onto the bag and the receipt so use is documented.

The seasonal tags stay unregistered, deliberately, because none of them will still be in use a year after a certificate would issue.

How long does the registration last?

Seven years from registration under Sec. 18D, renewable in further seven-year terms without limit.

Renewal falls due within 35 days of expiry with a limited late window on payment of a fine, so put the date in the company calendar rather than trusting a reminder.

Our renewal team can hold those dates for you once the certificate issues.

In short

A hashtag is registrable when the words behind the hash would have been registrable anyway, and not otherwise.

Test it by stripping the symbol, put the tag on the product rather than only in captions, file before it trends, and keep using it afterwards.

If you want a stronger phrase to start from, try our name generator, then let our filing team take it from there.

People also search for

• What is a trade mark in Nepal?
• Checking whether a name is available
• What the NICE classes mean
• How to register a trade mark in Nepal

If you have a tag that has outgrown the caption and started appearing on your packaging, send us the words and the goods and we will tell you what is already published against it.