Can I Trademark My App Name in Nepal?

Yes, if the name distinguishes your app from everyone else's. An app name is an ordinary trade mark question in Nepal: Sec. 2(c) decides whether it can be a mark at all, and Sec. 18(1) decides whether the Department will register it.

Key takeaways

• Sec. 2(c) covers a word, symbol or picture used to distinguish your products or services from other people's. An app name fits.
• Sec. 18(1) refuses a mark already registered to someone else, or one that harms another mark's reputation, public morality or the national interest.
• Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category, so one app can mean three or four filings.
• Class 9 is downloadable software, class 42 is hosted software and development, and class 35 or 38 often joins them.
• An App Store listing, a domain and a social handle are not rights. Sec. 21B says even a foreign registration is not valid here until registered in Nepal.
• Sec. 18C cancels a mark not brought into use within one year of registration, which is a real risk for an app that files early and ships late.
• A registration runs seven years under Sec. 18D and a trade mark may be renewed any number of times under Sec. 23B(3).

What does the Act require of the name itself?

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 a firm, company or individual in its products or services to distinguish them from others'.

The working word is "distinguish". A name describing what the app does tells users about the product rather than pointing at who made it.

"Nepal Ride Booking" is a description. "Pathao" is a badge. That difference is what an examiner is looking at first, long before anyone compares your name to somebody else's.

What will get an app name refused?

The proviso to Sec. 18(1) lists the grounds. A mark is not registered if it may hurt the prestige of any individual or institution, adversely affect public conduct or morality, undermine the national interest or the reputation of another person's trade mark, or is already registered in another's name.

Note the second-last ground. It is not limited to identical marks: damaging the reputation of an existing mark is enough, which is where a near-miss on a well-known software brand runs into trouble.

Sec. 18(3) also lets the Department cancel a registration later if it is satisfied one of those circumstances exists, after giving the holder a reasonable chance to show cause. A certificate is not the end of the argument.

Which classes does an app actually need?

Classes follow what you supply, not what you are called. A downloadable app sits in class 9; a hosted platform, or building software for others, sits in class 42.

Many apps are both, and many are more. A marketplace needs class 35 for the retail layer, and a messaging feature points at class 38. The Department applies the NICE classification under Sec. 18A(1), by notification in the Nepal Gazette.

Start with the class finder, then sanity-check the wording with the AI classifier. Neither replaces advice on a multi-service app.

Why does one app need several applications?

Because Sec. 18A(2) says so: a separate application is submitted for goods or services placed in different categories. There is no single filing that covers class 9 and class 42 together.

Our own bulletin archive shows what that looks like in practice. The mark Coke Buddy (and logo) was filed on the same day in classes 9, 32, 35 and 42, and the four applications carry four consecutive numbers, 113181 to 113184.

One brand, four filings. Budget for the classes you need rather than dropping the one that covers how you actually earn.

How close are class 35 and class 42?

Close enough to catch people out. The classification lists carry business consultancy services for digital transformation in class 35 and technological consultancy services for digital transformation in class 42.

One word apart, two applications, and the wrong choice narrows what your registration covers. If your product is advice about software you may be in 35; if it is the software work itself, probably 42.

Read the wording in the class list before deciding, and write the goods and services description to match what you sell rather than what sounds impressive.

Do the App Store, the domain and the handle give you anything?

Not a trade mark right in Nepal. A store listing is a contract with a platform, a domain a registration with a registry, a handle a username. None is examined by the Department, and none appears on the register.

Sec. 16(1) says title to a trade mark is acquired upon registration at the Department. Sec. 21B goes further: even a mark registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here.

The practical reading is that Nepal is first-to-file, so launching first buys you nothing against someone who filed first. Our note on domains against trade marks covers the overlap.

What if you register early and launch late?

This is the rule founders most often miss. Sec. 18C says that if a registered trade mark is not brought into use within one year from the date of registration, the Department shall make the necessary inquiries and cancel the registration.

An app that files during the seed round and ships eighteen months later is the case that provision describes. The clock runs from registration, not filing, which at least gives you the examination period.

Keep evidence of use from the day registration is granted: store screenshots, invoices, advertising, dated releases. If a launch will slip badly, that is a conversation to have with an advocate rather than a risk to sit on.

How do you file an app name?

1. Search first. Run the exact name, the obvious misspellings and anything that sounds the same through our register search and the conflict checker.
2. Decide word or logo. A word mark protects the name in any typeface, a logo filing the icon. Most apps want both eventually.
3. Fix the class list. Write down what you supply today and what you will supply within the year, then map it to classes.
4. Prepare the papers.Sec. 17(1) takes the Schedule 1(c) form with four specimens of the mark; an agent filing on your behalf needs a notarised power of attorney.
5. File one application per class. Each one is examined on its own, and one can be refused while another proceeds.
6. Answer the examiner. An objection is a question, not a rejection, and a reasoned reply with evidence often settles it.
7. Watch the publication. Accepted marks appear in the Industrial Property Bulletin, which is where a third party would see yours and where you would see theirs.

Plan on a long wait. An unopposed application commonly runs somewhere around 12–14 months end to end, with 6–8 months only in the smoothest cases, and our own bulletin data puts filing to publication at a median of about three and a half months, though about one mark in six waits more than two years. Treat it as a planning estimate, not a promise.

Our trade mark filing service handles the whole sequence, and a clearance alone is available through trade mark search.

What does the objection stage look like?

Sec. 21A(1) has the Department publish registered designs and trade marks with particulars of renewal or cancellation, and the 35 days in Sec. 21A(2) concern complaints about the particulars of marks already registered, not the opposition window.

A published trade mark has an opposition window of 90 days from publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin. The deadline the Department states prevails, so act before the last day.

If you find a conflicting mark in the bulletin, our opposition and enforcement team can advise on whether to act.

How long does an app name registration last?

Sec. 18D gives seven years from the date of registration. Sec. 23B(1) requires renewal within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on payment of a fine before the registration is cancelled automatically.

The renewal term is another seven years, and Sec. 23B(3) allows a trade mark to be renewed any number of times. Unlike a design, a name can run indefinitely. Diary the date from the registration certificate and check it with the renewal calculator.

What does the register already show about app brands?

Across the bulletin archive our availability checks run against, 484 distinct mark names appear in both class 9 and class 42. Software brands routinely file the pair, and that is published-entry data from our own index rather than an official Department statistic.

Class 9 carries roughly 3,545 published entries and class 42 roughly 1,341, so the software side of the register is real but much smaller than the consumer-goods classes.

Is registering the company enough?

No. A company name is recorded at the Office of the Company Registrar so that two companies do not share an identity. A trade mark is examined at the Department of Industry against every earlier mark in the class you claim.

They differ on purpose. Many businesses trade under a name nothing like their company name, which is why the two registers answer different questions.

Can you change the app name later?

You can rebrand, but you cannot edit a registration into a different mark. A new name is a new application, examined afresh, with its own seven-year term running from its own registration date.

Ownership details are different: a change of applicant name or address goes through the Department’s own process, which our note on name and address changes explains.

Common mistakes

• Naming the function. A name that describes the app is a weak badge and an easy refusal.
• Filing one class only. The class you skipped is usually the one where you earn.
• Trusting the store listing. Platform approval is not examination, and it creates no right here.
• Registering years before launch. Sec. 18C gives you one year from registration to use it.
• Calling it registered too soon. Sec. 18B prohibits using a mark as a registered mark before it is registered.
• Ignoring sound-alikes. A different spelling that is said the same way is still a conflict.
• Forgetting the icon. A word filing does not protect a distinctive symbol.

What does this look like for one app?

A Kathmandu team builds a tiffin-delivery app. Users install it, the team runs the ordering platform, and restaurants pay to be listed. That is class 9 for the app, class 42 for the platform and class 35 for the listing service.

They file all three on the same day, put the word mark in first and the icon in a month later, and keep the launch quiet until the applications are lodged. This is an illustration, not a real case.

Six months after registration they are live, so Sec. 18C never becomes an issue. Had they registered during the pilot and shipped two years later, it would have.

In short

An app name can be registered in Nepal if it distinguishes rather than describes, and if no earlier mark blocks it. Expect several applications rather than one, because Sec. 18A(2) divides them by class.

File before you launch, keep proof of use once registered, and treat the App Store, the domain and the handle as commercial conveniences rather than legal rights.

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If you have a shortlist of names and a launch date, the useful order is search, then classes, then filing. The Department of Industry publishes its current procedure, WIPO explains the international picture, and you can contact our team to have the shortlist checked before you commit to one.