No. As of our last check in September 2026, the Department of Industry has no public portal that lets you submit a trademark application, pay for it and collect the certificate online. You can do the search, the paperwork and the instructions remotely, but the application itself is filed on paper in Kathmandu.
Key takeaways
- There is no public DoI e-filing portal for trademarks that we could find. The DoI's own online system, IMIS, is for industry registration, not industrial property.
- Almost everything around the filing can be done at a distance: searching, class selection, drafting, signing and instructing an agent.
- A Nepal-based agent with a notarised power of attorney can file and follow the case for you, so you never have to attend in person.
- There is no public online status tracker either. You learn where a file stands from the DoI or from your agent.
- Filing remotely changes nothing about the law: the same examination, the same Industrial Property Bulletin publication and the same 90-day opposition window apply.
Is there an official online trademark filing portal in Nepal?
We checked the Department of Industry website again in September 2026. The online system it links to is IMIS, the Industry Management Information System, which deals with industry registration and approvals. We found no link from it to a trademark, patent or design e-filing service.
The DoI does publish its trademark application form as a downloadable PDF, titled व्यापार चिन्ह (ट्रेडमार्क) दर्ताको निम्ति आवेदन फाराम. Downloading a form is not the same as filing one. The completed application, the specimens of the mark and the supporting papers still go in on paper.
Be careful with any website that calls itself an "official DoI online trademark portal". Private platforms can collect your details, prepare documents and arrange filing through a representative, and several do that well. None of them is the registrar. The DoI decides whether a mark is registered.
What can you actually do online?
More than people expect. The expensive thinking happens before anything is filed, and all of it travels over email.
| Task | Can it be done remotely? | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Screening a name against published marks | Yes | A search of the register, such as our free tool |
| Choosing the NICE class | Yes | An honest list of what you sell now |
| Preparing the form and the label | Yes | Applicant details and a clean mark file |
| Signing the power of attorney | Partly | Wet signature, notarisation, then courier |
| Lodging the application | No | Paper filing at the DoI in Kathmandu |
| Checking your file's progress | No | Enquiry at the DoI, or your agent |
The first three rows are judgement work, and they are where a filing is won or lost. None of them needs anyone to be in Kathmandu.
Can you search Nepal's trademark register online?
Yes, and this is the part that genuinely is online. Our trademark search covers the 71,500 or more marks published in DoI bulletins, which is the largest public record of its kind for Nepal.
Read what it shows carefully. It lists marks that have been published in a bulletin. It does not show registration status, and it cannot show an application that has been filed but not yet published.
Under Sec. 18 the DoI refuses a mark already registered in another name, or one that damages the goodwill of another's mark. What the search misses is what stops your file.
A clean result lowers your risk without clearing you. Our guide on how to check whether a trademark is registered explains where the gaps are and what a professional clearance adds.
Do you need a registered company to file?
No. Sec. 2(c) speaks of a mark used by a firm, company or individual, so an individual can be the applicant. That matters for founders who are trading before they incorporate.
A company applicant does carry more paperwork: the board resolution, the industry certificate and the tax clearance letter sit alongside the form. An individual applicant has a shorter file.
What you should not do is file in a convenient person's name and sort it out later. Moving ownership afterwards is a separate recorded action. Our note on filing without a company goes through the choice.
How does a remote filing work, step by step?
- Screen the name. Check identical and similar names in the classes you care about, including different spellings and Nepali transliterations.
- Settle the applicant and the mark. The owner of the brand should be the applicant. Decide whether you are filing the word, the logo, or both.
- Pick the class. Sec. 18A of the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965 allows one class per application, so list each class you genuinely trade in.
- Sign the authority. A notarised power of attorney, signed and attested by two witnesses, lets a Nepal-based agent act for you at the DoI.
- Courier the originals. Scans move the work along, but the paper file needs the signed and notarised versions.
- Let the agent file and follow it. The DoI examines the mark, publishes an accepted one in the bulletin, and issues the certificate if no opposition succeeds within 90 days.
Our team handles that whole sequence as part of trademark registration, and a clearance opinion before you commit is a separate, cheaper step through trademark search and clearance.
Can you pay the DoI's fees online?
Not directly. We found no card or wallet page for paying trademark charges to the Department of Industry, so official fees are paid at the office, normally by the agent who is filing.
Ask for the receipt as well as the acknowledgement. A filing you cannot evidence is hard to argue about later, and the two documents together are your proof of the date.
Keep the two ledgers apart in your head. Official charges are set by the Government and can change by notice; what your representative charges for the work is separate, and our fee calculator covers the first.
Can a foreign applicant do everything from abroad?
Almost. Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so a foreign owner needs a national filing here, made through a Nepal-based agent under a notarised power of attorney.
The extra documents are the part to plan for. A certified or notarised copy of the home registration in English is usually needed, and a Paris Convention priority claim needs the earlier filing receipt in English too.
Notarisation abroad, translation and courier time can easily add weeks. Start those before the signature date you have in mind, not after.
Are renewal and other DoI actions online?
No, and this catches owners who assume the hard part was the first filing. Renewal, an assignment of ownership, an amendment to an application, a change recorded on a certificate and a duplicate certificate are all separate official actions, each with its own paperwork and its own charge.
The one with a real deadline is renewal. Sec. 23B gives 35 days after the seven-year term expires, then a six-month late window on payment of a fine. Miss both and the registration is cancelled automatically, and in a first-to-file country a lapsed mark is an open door.
Use matters too. Sec. 18C lets the DoI cancel a registered mark that is not put into use within one year, which catches owners who file from abroad and then delay the launch.
Because none of this is automated, nobody emails you a reminder. Put the registration date, the class and the renewal date in a record you will actually read, or let our trademark renewal team hold the calendar. The renewal calculator will work out the dates from your certificate.
What can a private filing service honestly promise?
A good one prepares the application properly, tells you which classes you actually need, files it, replies to examination and warns you about the bulletin window. That is real work, and most of it is the part that decides whether the mark registers.
What none of them can promise is an outcome, a fixed date, or "online registration" in the sense of a government account you log into. If a site implies the DoI has approved it as an official portal, ask which office issues the certificate. The answer is always the Department of Industry.
Ask three plain questions before you pay anyone: who signs as the filing agent, when will I get the acknowledgement number, and what happens if the examiner objects. Clear answers to those tell you more than any badge on a homepage.
Can you check your application status online?
Not on a public government tracker. We looked for one on the DoI site and in IMIS and did not find a service that lets an applicant type an application number and read the current stage of a trademark file.
What exists online is the record of marks that have already been published. Our application-number lookup will find a mark once it has appeared in a bulletin and show its owner, class and issue. Before publication, it will find nothing, and that silence means nothing either way.
So keep the acknowledgement the DoI issues on filing. That receipt and its number are how anyone, including your agent, asks the office where the file has reached.
Does filing remotely change your rights or the timeline?
No. A mark filed by an authorised agent and registered by the DoI has exactly the same standing as one filed by an owner who walked in. Rights come from registration under Sec. 16, not from who carried the paperwork.
The timing is the same too. An unopposed case usually runs about 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate, and the smoothest cases finish in six to eight. Working remotely saves travel, not examination.
Cost is not directly affected either, though foreign applicants generally face higher official charges and more notarisation and translation work. Our fee calculator gives current figures.
Common mistakes
- Waiting for a portal to appear. Nepal is first-to-file, and the clock does not pause while you wait.
- Treating an online form on a private site as a filing. Nothing is filed until the DoI has the paper.
- Sending scans only. A notarised power of attorney is needed in original form.
- Assuming a Madrid registration reaches Nepal. Sec. 21B says a foreign registration gives no title here.
- Reading an empty search result as "not filed". Marks appear in the public record only after publication.
- Filing one class because it looks cheaper. The gap is exactly where a copycat files.
What does this look like in practice?
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Nepali founder living in Australia wants to protect a spice brand before shipping to Kathmandu. She screens the name, picks a goods class, approves the label and emails everything in one week.
The only physical steps are a notarised power of attorney signed at a notary near her, and a courier envelope. Her agent files in Kathmandu, sends her the acknowledgement number, and tells her when the mark reaches the bulletin. She never books a flight, and her application is no weaker for it.
In short
You can run almost all of a Nepali trademark application from a laptop. The application itself is still a paper filing at the Department of Industry, and there is no public status tracker to watch it on.
The rules behind that sit in the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965, published by the Nepal Law Commission. WIPO explains why a Madrid filing cannot reach a non-member country on its Madrid System pages.
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If you are outside Kathmandu, or outside Nepal, we can run the whole file for you and send you the acknowledgement the day it is lodged. Tell us the brand and what you sell, and we will set out the steps in order.
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