How Long Does Copyright Last in Nepal?

Copyright in Nepal usually lasts the author's lifetime plus 50 years, counted from the year of death. But Sec. 14 of the Copyright Act 2059 (2002) sets different clocks for different works. A photograph or a work of applied art gets only 25 years from the year it was made.

Key takeaways

• Standard term: the author's life plus 50 years, computed from the year of death (Sec. 14(1)).
• Joint work: 50 years from the year the last surviving author dies (Sec. 14(2)).
• Photographs and applied art: 25 years from the year of preparation (Sec. 14(5)).
• Anonymous, pseudonymous and organisation-commissioned works run 50 years from first publication.
• Sec. 14 protects economic and moral rights for the same period, not one longer than the other.
• Registration changes nothing about the term, and there is no renewal filing.

How long does copyright last in Nepal?

For an ordinary work with a named author, Sec. 14(1) protects the economic and moral rights "throughout the life of the author and in the case of his/her death until fifty years computed from the year of his death."

Notice the word "year". The clock is not counted from a precise date but from the year of death, so a term effectively runs out at the end of the fiftieth year. That is how you should write the calculation down.

Protection begins without any formality. Sec. 5 says registration is not required to acquire the right, so the term runs from an event in the author's life, not from a filing.

How long for a work with two or more authors?

Sec. 14(2) protects a jointly prepared work for "fifty years computed from the year of death of the last surviving author."

So the first co-author's death does nothing to the clock. A song written by two people, one of whom lives thirty years longer, is protected thirty years longer than the other author's family might assume.

This makes the list of co-authors a factual question you must settle before you can calculate anything. For music, where a composition and a recording sit on top of each other, our guide to music copyright and royalties explains the layers.

How long for an anonymous or pseudonymous work?

Sec. 14(4) gives 50 years from first publication, or from the date the work was made public, whichever is earlier.

The rule exists for a practical reason: with no identifiable author, there is no death date to count from. A publication date always exists.

If the author is later identified, the ordinary author-based calculation can apply instead, which means the expiry date you computed may move. Do not treat a pen name as a permanent answer.

Why do photographs only get 25 years?

Because Sec. 14(5) says so: "The economic and moral right of a work relating to applied art and photographic work shall be protected until twenty-five years from the year of preparation of such work."

Most summaries of Nepali copyright soften or skip this provision, and it is the one that changes decisions. A photograph taken in 1990 left its term long before a novel written the same year will.

It cuts both ways for a business. Your own product photography has a short clock, which matters if you license it. An old image you want to reuse may genuinely be free, though you still need to check the year and whether a modern scan or retouch added anything new. Photographers will find more in our guide for photographers, artists and designers.

What about a work made for an employer or a client?

Sec. 6 sets out when the economic right sits with someone other than the author, including work produced at an organisation's direction and work produced for payment. Sec. 14(3) then gives those works 50 years from first publication or from being made public, whichever comes first.

Audiovisual works usually land here in practice, because the producer commonly holds the economic rights. Which limb of Sec. 6 applies to a particular film depends on how it was made and what the contracts say.

Do not guess this for a valuable title. Establish the facts, then apply the section, and take advice where a distribution deal turns on the answer.

What if the work is published after the author dies?

Sec. 15 covers it. A work published after the death of its author, or after the death of one of two or more authors, is protected for 50 years from the year of publication.

A posthumous first edition therefore starts a fresh 50-year run from publication rather than expiring on the author's own timetable. That matters for literary estates and archives more than most people realise, and our guide to book and manuscript copyright goes into the publishing side.

Do moral rights last as long as economic rights?

In Nepal they share the same clock. Sec. 14 speaks of "the economic and moral rights" together, and every subsection applies the one term to both.

That is worth saying plainly, because writers often assume moral rights are open-ended. Sec. 8 does make them different in another way: they cannot be transferred during the author's life and pass to a nominated heir afterwards.

So an assignment of the economic rights does not carry the attribution right with it, but neither right outlives the Sec. 14 period.

Does registration change the term?

No. Registration with the Nepal Copyright Registrar's Office produces a dated record of the work and the claimant; it does not add a single year.

There is also no renewal. A trademark runs seven years and is renewed in further seven-year terms through our trademark renewal service; copyright simply ends when Sec. 14 says it does. The contrast in timetables is set out in our guide to how long trademark registration takes.

If what you actually want is a record for a dispute, our guides to copyright registration in Nepal and what the certificate proves cover it.

What is outside copyright at any age?

Some material never had a term to run. Sec. 4 says protection does not extend to a thought, religion, news, a method of operation, a concept, a principle, a court judgment, an administrative decision, a folksong, a folktale, a proverb or general data.

So you never need to calculate an expiry date for a proverb or a court judgment, and a folk tune is free regardless of when it was composed.

Be careful with the last one. A studio recording, an arrangement or a filmed performance of a folk song is a protected work in its own right, with its own clock. The tradition is open; the version is not.

What happens when copyright expires?

The work enters the public domain, and the former owner can no longer control copying, publication, adaptation or performance of it.

That freedom is real and narrow. Expiry says nothing about contracts you signed, a trademark on the title, or claiming authorship you do not have. A title still in use as a brand may be registered under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965, so check it in our Nepal trademark database before reissuing under the same name.

Passing an out-of-term work off as your own creation is a separate problem from copyright, and one that tends to cost more reputationally than legally.

Can a new edition restart the clock?

Not for the original work, but a new layer can have its own protection. Sec. 3 extends copyright to translations, arrangements, databases and derivative works based on folk expressions, without prejudicing the rights in the original.

So an expired poem stays expired, while a modern publisher's edited edition, a new translation, a fresh recording or a redrawn illustration may each be protected in their own right.

The practical rule is to separate the source from the layer you are actually copying. If you are scanning a recent book, you are copying that edition, not the eighteenth-century text inside it.

How do you work out an expiry date?

Write the calculation down, with a source for every date. A calculation you cannot evidence is a guess with a number attached.

1. Identify the exact work. The original, or a later edition, translation, arrangement or recording of it.
2. Classify it. Named author, joint authors, anonymous, organisation-commissioned, photograph or applied art.
3. Find the right date. The year of death, the year of preparation, or the year of first publication, depending on the class.
4. Apply the Sec. 14 period for that class, counting in years rather than exact dates.
5. Check for co-authors and, for a joint work, the last survivor.
6. Look for later layers. Editions, translations, recordings and photographs of the work each need their own check.
7. Record your sources so the conclusion can be defended later.

Does a foreign work expire on Nepal's timetable?

Copyright is territorial, so a work being out of term abroad does not make it free in Nepal. The reverse is true too.

Nepal's copyright framework sits inside wider international commitments, and WIPO publishes general background on how national terms relate to those obligations. That context does not replace a Nepal-specific check.

For imported textbooks, stock photographs, music catalogues and software libraries, there is usually a contract in the chain as well. A Nepali distributor may hold rights by agreement even where the underlying work is close to expiry, so permission and public-domain status are separate questions.

Common mistakes

• Counting 50 years from creation when the rule for a named author counts from death.
• Applying life-plus-50 to a photograph. Sec. 14(5) gives it 25 years from preparation.
• Stopping at the first co-author's death instead of the last survivor's.
• Assuming "company-owned" answers it. Authorship, the contract and the category still decide.
• Treating anything old online as public domain. The upload may be a protected new edition.
• Thinking registration or renewal extends the term. Neither exists for copyright.
• Forgetting attribution after expiry, which is a reputational risk even when it is lawful.

What does this look like in practice?

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Kathmandu publisher wants to reissue a Nepali poetry collection first printed in 1968, with archival photographs of the poet on the cover.

The poems and the photographs need separate answers. The poems follow the poet's death year plus fifty; the cover photographs follow Sec. 14(5) and were out of term twenty-five years after they were taken.

But the 1995 anthology the publisher is scanning from has its own editor's introduction and notes, which are a protected work with their own clock. Scanning that volume copies those additions, whatever the age of the poems inside.

The workable plan is to set the poems from an out-of-term source, licence or commission the introduction, verify the photographers and the years, and record every date with its source before going to print.

In short

Copyright in Nepal usually lasts the author's life plus 50 years, measured from the year of death. Joint works run from the last surviving author, anonymous and organisation-commissioned works run 50 years from publication, and photographs and applied art get 25 years from the year they were made.

Registration adds nothing to the term, Sec. 4 puts some material outside copyright entirely, and a later edition or recording carries its own protection. The Act's text is on the Nepal Law Commission website, and a valuable reuse deserves a checked calculation rather than an estimate.

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Planning to reuse an old work, or wondering how long your own catalogue is protected? Send us the work, the author and the dates, and we will tell you what to check and where a lawyer's opinion is needed.