Famous industrial designers such as Raymond Loewy, Dieter Rams, Charles and Ray Eames, Marianne Brandt, Jony Ive and Naoto Fukasawa changed how everyday products look. Each career shows that appearance is a business asset. In Nepal, that asset is protected by registering an industrial design at the Department of Industry (DoI).
Key takeaways
- An industrial design protects how a product looks, not how it works.
- Title to a design comes from registration at the DoI (Sec. 12(1)), so the first-to-file principle generally applies.
- Protection lasts five years and is renewable twice, so 15 years at most.
- Anyone may object within 35 days of a design's publication (Sec. 21A(2)).
- A foreign registration has no force in Nepal until the design is registered here.
- The product's name needs a separate trademark, which can outlast the design right.
Who are the famous industrial designers who changed product design?
We picked six designers whose best-known work each teaches one lesson about protecting a product's look. Every date below was checked against a museum, foundation or company record.
| Designer | Known work | Lesson for your product |
|---|---|---|
| Raymond Loewy | Gestetner duplicator case, 1929 | A new outer shape can be protected even when the machine inside is old. |
| Dieter Rams | Braun products; 606 shelving, 1960 | A family look is built, and filed, one product at a time. |
| Charles and Ray Eames | Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 | Famous designs draw copies, so the brand must outlast the design right. |
| Marianne Brandt | MT 49 tea infuser, 1924; Kandem bedside lamp, about 1928 | Settle who owns a design before a factory makes it. |
| Jony Ive | iMac, 1998; later iPod and iPhone | A name and a shape need different rights, country by country. |
| Naoto Fukasawa | MUJI wall-mounted CD player, 1999 | A simple form must still be new, and its working parts are not design. |
The law's history is covered in our industrial design timeline. This guide stays with the people.
What did Raymond Loewy show about redesigning an old machine?
Raymond Loewy, born in Paris in 1893, worked in the United States. In 1929 the duplicator maker Gestetner asked him to improve the look of its machines, a tangle of steel, gears, levers and knobs. The Victoria and Albert Museum records his sleek black case as his first industrial commission.
The mechanism stayed much the same; the shape around it changed. That split matters in Nepal, where the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 defines a design in Sec. 2(b) as "the form or shape" of a manufactured article.
A fresh casing over an old machine can therefore be a design worth registering. Any new mechanism inside is a question for a patent instead.
Why did Dieter Rams's look become a business asset?
Dieter Rams, born in Wiesbaden in 1932, joined Braun in 1955 and became its head of design in 1961, a post he held for 34 years. Vitsœ launched his 606 Universal Shelving System in 1960. His ten principles end with "Good design is as little design as possible", and he summed them up as "Less, but better".
A Rams product is recognisable across a whole range, but legally a family look is not one right. Sec. 13 has you apply for the design of an article, with four copies of that design, so plan to file each shape you want to protect. Our industrial design registration service helps decide which shapes in a range are worth filing.
What do copies of the Eames Lounge Chair teach?
Charles and Ray Eames introduced their Lounge Chair and Ottoman for Herman Miller in 1956, and it debuted on the NBC television show "Home". By 1963 Herman Miller was running advertisements telling buyers to "beware of imitations". The company now calls it one of the most counterfeited pieces of furniture in history.
Copies follow success. In Nepal, Sec. 12(2) bars anyone from copying or using a registered design without a transfer or written permission, and Sec. 15 lets the Department fine an offender and confiscate the goods.
But a design right ends after 15 years at most, while a registered trademark is renewable without limit. A maker's brand keeps working long after the shape is free; see our guide to fighting counterfeit products.
Who owns a design made in a workshop for a manufacturer?
Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919. Marianne Brandt joined it in 1924 and designed her MT 49 tea infuser in her first year.
She became acting head of the metal workshop in 1928 and left in 1929. Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum holds a "Kandem" bedside-table lamp of about 1928 credited to her.
Designs made in a studio for a factory raise an ownership question. The DoI registers a design in the applicant's name (Sec. 14), and title follows that registration. So agree in writing, before any drawings change hands, who will apply; a later move needs a joint application to record the transfer (Sec. 21D).
The drawings can also carry copyright, which belongs first to their author. Take a signed written assignment rather than relying on payment, as our guide to copyright for designers explains.
What does Jony Ive's work at Apple show about protecting a look?
Jony Ive, born in London in 1967, joined Apple in 1992. The Design Museum credits him with the 1998 iMac, and he won its first Designer of the Year prize in 2003 for the iMac and iPod. Apple announced on 27 June 2019 that its chief design officer would leave to form his own design firm.
Apple defended those shapes in court. In Samsung v. Apple, decided on 6 December 2016, the US Supreme Court reviewed damages for design patents covering a rectangular front face with rounded edges and a grid of colourful icons. It held unanimously that the relevant "article of manufacture" can be a component, not only the whole phone.
A US design patent has no effect here, because Sec. 21B gives a foreign registration no validity in Nepal.
The names are a separate matter. Our archive of more than 120 Industrial Property Bulletin issues holds 279 published marks owned by Apple Inc., across 19 NICE classes; IPHONE first appeared on 15 July 2009, in Class 9. Check any owner with our owner search.
What does Naoto Fukasawa's CD player teach about simple shapes?
Naoto Fukasawa, born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1956, worked at IDEO in San Francisco and founded Naoto Fukasawa Design in 2003. His wall-mounted CD player, first made for MUJI in 1999, looks like a kitchen extractor fan. A hanging cord switches it on, a habit users already had.
Two lessons follow. The square, coverless form is design territory; the cord switch is function, which a design right does not cover.
And a simple shape still has to be new. Under Sec. 14, the DoI will not register a design already registered in someone else's name.
What does industrial design registration protect in Nepal?
It protects the visible form of a manufactured article: its shape, configuration, pattern or ornament as shown in your drawings. It does not protect an idea, a working principle or a brand name, and designs do not use the NICE classification, which sorts goods and services for trademarks. The Act's text is on the Nepal Law Commission site.
A product can need several rights at once. Compare the routes in industrial design versus patent, protect the name through trademark registration, and see patent registration if the working part is new.
How do you register a product design in Nepal?
Filing is national and handled by the DoI. Our advocate's notes and the Act give these steps:
- Separate the look. Decide which visible features are new and commercially important.
- Prepare the drawings. Make four copies of the design, showing the plan, elevation and side views (Sec. 13).
- Gather the papers. Add the Schedule 1(b) form, a notarised power of attorney attested by two witnesses, and a notarised originality claim.
- Add priority papers if needed. A foreign owner adds a certified English copy of the earlier filing or home certificate.
- File and answer queries. The DoI examines the design and may raise questions.
- Receive the registration certificate. The DoI registers the design and issues the Schedule 2(b) certificate on payment of the fee (Sec. 14).
Our advocate's notes put publication and the objection period before the certificate, so confirm the order for your file with the DoI. Its forms are on the Department of Industry website, and how to register an industrial design in Nepal covers each step.
Where are registered designs published, and who can object?
Sec. 21A(1) tells the Department to publish registered designs, with any renewal or cancellation, for public information. The Industrial Property Bulletin of 8 July 2026, for example, printed a notice listing designs registered under Sec. 14, in a section apart from the trademarks.
That notice invites objections, with evidence, within 35 days of publication under Sec. 21A(2). Trademarks differ: a published mark can be opposed within a 90-day opposition window. Our Bulletin explainer shows how an issue is laid out.
IP Sewa's trademark search covers the 71,500+ marks published in those bulletins; it does not index designs. To check earlier designs, ask the DoI or our design team.
How long does design protection last in Nepal?
Sec. 14A gives five years from the date of registration. Sec. 23B(3) lets a design be renewed not more than twice, five years at a time, so the maximum is 15 years.
Renew within 35 days after the term expires. A late renewal is allowed within six months on a fine; after that the registration is cancelled automatically.
A design still selling well at year 15 must rely on its brand and trademark from then on. Our design renewal guide explains the paperwork.
Can a foreign design registration protect a product in Nepal?
No. Under Sec. 21B, a design registered abroad is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered here. Nepal is not a member of the Hague Agreement: WIPO Lex's Hague table, read on 17 October 2026, lists 85 members, none of them in South Asia.
Sec. 21C lets the DoI register a design already registered abroad without its usual enquiries, and gives Paris Convention facilities such as priority. A foreign owner still files nationally, usually through a Nepali agent under Sec. 20.
What should you do before showing a new product?
Most design rights are lost before filing: at a trade fair, in a distributor's inbox or on social media. Six habits keep the option open.
Packaging has its own rules; see protecting packaging design.
Common mistakes: what weakens product design protection?
- Launching first. Showing a product before filing invites a copier to file first.
- Marketing photos as drawings. Styled images hide edges and proportions; the drawings define the right.
- Filing the mechanism as a design. A new working part needs patent advice.
- Trusting a foreign certificate. It has no force in Nepal under Sec. 21B.
- Leaving ownership vague. A factory, freelancer or partner may claim the design later.
- Missing the 35 days. An objection to someone else's design must reach the DoI within 35 days of publication.
What happens when a lamp maker shows a prototype too early?
Here is an illustration, not a real case. A Lalitpur workshop makes a lamp with a folded brass shade, shows it at a Kathmandu trade fair, and plans to file "after the launch". A supplier who saw it files a near-identical design first.
The workshop must now object within 35 days of that design's publication, with evidence that the shape was its own. Filing before the fair would have spared it the fight; ask a lawyer about evidence for any real objection.
In short: what do famous industrial designers teach?
Loewy, Rams, the Eameses, Brandt, Ive and Fukasawa proved that a product's look can be worth as much as its working parts. In Nepal, that look is protected only by registering it at the DoI, for up to 15 years, with the name protected separately as a trademark.
File before you show, keep ownership in writing, and diary every renewal.
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Planning a product launch? Our design registration team can review your drawings, and you can contact IP Sewa for a document-based estimate.
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