Customs Seizure of Counterfeit Goods in Nepal

We could not confirm that Nepal operates a published customs recordal or suspension system for trade marks. The Act says nothing about the border. What it does give you is a confiscation power exercised by the Department of Industry once the goods are here.

Key takeaways

• The Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 contains the words "customs", "border", "seizure" and "police" zero times.
• Confiscation of infringing goods sits in Sec. 19, and it happens on the Department's order.
• Our research note records that the Trademark Directives 2072 name Customs offices among the enforcement bodies. That is a secondary source.
• We found no published recordal form, suspension procedure or deadline for a Nepali rights holder at the border.
• A registration in Nepal is the foundation either way: Sec. 21B says a foreign registration is not valid here on its own.
• Protection is class-bound, so check the class covers the goods in the consignment.
• Treat the border as one possible step, and the Department route as the one with written rules.

What does the Act say about customs?

Nothing. We counted over the English text of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 on 30 September 2026: "customs" appears zero times, "border" zero, "seizure" zero, "detain" zero, and "police" zero.

The word "import" appears only inside the footnote naming the 2006 amending statute on export, import and intellectual property. There is no substantive import provision.

That is a fact about the statute, not a claim that nothing happens at Nepali borders. It does mean no section of this Act creates a border remedy.

What could we confirm, and what could we not?

Confirmed: the prohibition, the penalty and the confiscation power, all readable in the Act on the Nepal Law Commission site, and quoted here with their section numbers.

Not confirmed: any published customs recordal scheme, any application form for suspending a consignment, any statutory period for a rights holder to respond after a detention, and any fee or security requirement.

We also could not reach the Customs Department's own site that day. Read the sections below as the reliable part, and put the border question directly to Customs and the Department of Industry.

Where does confiscation actually come from?

Sec. 19. A person who copies or uses a registered trade mark contrary to Sec. 16(2), uses a mark cancelled under Sec. 18(3), or breaches Sec. 18B, may be fined, and the articles and goods connected with the offence are confiscated on the order of the Department.

The design and patent chapters say the same. Sec. 15 confiscates the goods in a design case and Sec. 11 in a patent case, again on the Department's order.

Read that carefully: the order comes from the Department of Industry. Nothing in the Act gives a customs officer an independent power over infringing goods, so the border question needs a source outside this statute.

Is there a customs recordal system in Nepal?

We could not confirm one. Many countries let a rights holder lodge its registrations with customs so officers can flag matching consignments, publishing a form, a fee and a validity period.

We found no equivalent published for Nepal. That is absence of evidence rather than proof of absence, and such a scheme can exist as internal practice with no public page.

So the honest answer to "can I record my mark with Nepal Customs" is: ask them, and ask the Department too. Do not plan a launch around an unpublished answer.

What does the Trademark Directives point say?

Our research file records that the Trademark Directives 2072 name the District Administration Office, Nepal Police and Customs offices as enforcement bodies that may act individually or jointly.

That is the strongest indication we have that Customs has a role at all. It comes from a secondary summary rather than from the Directives themselves, and the file notes that it should be verified against the primary text.

We repeat it because it is a real lead, not because it settles anything. If your matter turns on it, get the Directives text first.

So who should you approach, and in what order?

1. Confirm your own registration. Current, in the right name, and covering the goods in the container.
2. Write down what you actually know. Importer, goods, route, expected arrival, and how you learned it.
3. Prepare the comparison. Photographs of the genuine product beside the suspect one, with the copied features named.
4. Approach the relevant customs office in writing. Ask what it needs and whether it can act at all on this consignment.
5. File at the Department in parallel. That route has written rules, and it does not depend on catching the shipment.
6. Keep both files moving. Stock moves fast, and an unanswered letter is not a strategy.
7. Plan for the goods that got through. Most enforcement in practice happens in the market, not at the gate.

Step five matters most. Our note on what Nepal's counterfeit law says sets out that route section by section.

What does a shipment report need to contain?

Enough to identify one consignment among thousands. A rumour that "fakes are coming across the border" cannot be acted on by anyone.

• Your registration certificate, with the class and the goods it covers.
• A power of attorney if a representative is writing for you.
• The importer's name, and any transport or invoice reference you hold.
• The goods description, quantity and expected point and date of entry.
• Photographs of the genuine product and, if you have one, the suspect one.
• A short written list of the copied features: word, device, colour, packaging.
• Your local contact, available at short notice to identify goods.

Does a foreign registration help at the border?

Not on its own. Sec. 21B is explicit: title to a patent, design or trade mark registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here by the person concerned.

Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so no international registration reaches Nepal automatically. A direct national filing through a local representative is the route, and WIPO publishes the membership tables.

Sec. 21C softens the filing itself: the Department may register a foreign-registered mark without conducting enquiries where the foreign certificate is enclosed, and it extends Paris Convention treatment. That helps you get registered, not to stop a container.

Does your class cover the goods in the container?

This is the check that quietly defeats border complaints. Sec. 18A requires a separate application for goods or services in different categories, so your rights follow the class you filed in.

A sportswear brand registered for clothing covers nothing directly if the bags sit in another class. A retail-services registration does not cover the products inside the carton.

Our class finder gives a first reading, and goods against services classification explains the distinction that trips up most importers' complaints.

Is it counterfeit, or just an unauthorised importer?

These feel identical to a distributor and are legally different. Counterfeit means the mark was copied or applied without authority. Grey-market means the goods are genuine and the channel is not.

The second is usually a contract problem with whoever supplied them, not an offence under the Act. Calling it counterfeiting in a written complaint weakens everything else you say.

Our guide to parallel imports and grey-market goods works through how to tell them apart before you put anything in writing.

Is your certificate still good enough to enforce?

An expired registration is the quietest way to lose a border complaint. Sec. 23B puts renewal within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on payment of a fine, after which the registration is cancelled automatically.

The renewal term for a trade mark is seven years, and Sec. 23B(3) lets a mark be renewed any number of times. Patents and designs are capped at two renewals each.

Check the date before you write to anyone, and use our renewal calculator to see where you stand. How long registration takes is worth reading if you are still waiting on a first filing.

Can you object to the copycat's own application?

Often the importer eventually files the mark here. Accepted marks are published, and an interested person may object under Sec. 21A(2), which gives 35 days from publication in the Act's own text.

For trade marks the practical opposition period used at the Department is 90 days from bulletin publication. Work to the shorter number and confirm the date for the issue in question.

That is a cheaper fight than a container. Our owner search shows what a given applicant has already filed here.

What happens if the goods are already inside Nepal?

Then the uncertainty largely disappears, because the Department route is written down. A complaint, an inquiry, a hearing and an order carrying a fine, confiscation and compensation under Sec. 25.

It does not need you to have caught the shipment, and it reaches the seller, the importer and often the printer. It is where most successful Nepali enforcement happens.

Our enforcement team can look at the certificate and the evidence and tell you which of the two routes is worth the effort in your case.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for the border. The route with written rules starts at the Department, not at the gate.
• Reporting a rumour. Without an importer or a consignment, nobody can act.
• Assuming a foreign certificate travels. Sec. 21B says plainly that it does not.
• Complaining outside your class. Check the NICE class against what is in the carton.
• Calling grey-market goods fake. It is a different problem with a different remedy.
• Letting the stock disperse. Once it is in a dozen shops the evidence trail fragments.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Nepali tea brand registered for café services in Class 43 hears that packets carrying its name are arriving from a neighbouring market.

Its first problem is not the border. Its registration covers a service, and the goods in the carton are packaged tea, so the strongest part of a complaint does not exist yet.

It files for the goods class at once, gathers the importer's name and a customer's photograph, and writes to the relevant customs office while preparing a Department complaint.

The shipment is not stopped. The complaint about the packets already on shelves succeeds, and the class filing is what made it possible. That sequence is the realistic one.

What would change this page?

A published recordal or suspension procedure, a form, or a statement from Customs or the Department describing how a rights holder applies.

If you have been through it and hold correspondence describing the process, we would rather update this page than keep hedging.

Until then, we would not tell a client that the border is a dependable route, and we would not want any other page to tell them so either.

In short

Nepal's Act gives you a real confiscation power, exercised by the Department of Industry once goods are in the country. It gives you nothing at the border, and we could not find a published customs procedure that fills the gap.

Register in the right class, keep the certificate current, build the evidence, and run the Department route. Our guides to registering a trade mark and the documents required cover that groundwork.

Search existing filings in our published register first, and see our registration service if the mark is not filed yet.

People also search for

• Counterfeit goods in Nepal: the law and real risks
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If a consignment is on its way and you are not sure what is actually open to you, send us the certificate and what you know and we will tell you plainly.