How Long Does Trademark Registration Take in Nepal? (2026)

We publish 12–14 months as the typical unopposed figure and 6–8 months as the best case. Neither comes from a published Department of Industry service standard. What we can evidence is the first leg: across the twelve most recent bulletins, the median gap from filing to publication was 3.5 months.

Key takeaways

• There is no DoI-published processing time for a trademark application, so every figure online, including ours, is a planning estimate.
• Our own measurement of the first leg, filing to bulletin publication, gives a median of 3.5 months across 9,845 recent entries.
• That distribution is lopsided: 64% within six months, but 16% waited more than two years.
• The leg after publication — objection period, registration, registration certificate — is in no public dataset we can read.
• Sec. 21A(2) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 gives 35 days to object; trademark practice here works to a 90-day opposition window. Confirm which applies with the DoI.
• Nepal is first-to-file, so the date you file matters more than anything you can do to hurry the queue.

How long does trademark registration take in Nepal?

Plan for 12–14 months from a complete filing to a certificate when nobody objects, and treat 6–8 months as a favourable outcome rather than a target. Those are the figures IP Sewa works to.

We want to be straight about where they come from, because this page exists to answer that one question and a vague answer is worse than a qualified one.

The 6–8 month best case comes from a practising advocate's note for the design-partner firm we work with. The 12–14 month typical figure is our own planning standard, chosen because filings in practice run slower than the best case.

Is there an official processing time?

We have not found one. The Department of Industry publishes forms, notices and fee information at doind.gov.np, but no service standard stating how long an application should take, and the Act sets no deadline for the Department either.

Sec. 18(1) requires the Department to conduct necessary investigation and give the applicant a sufficient opportunity to defend the mark, without attaching a timeframe. The statute, readable at the Nepal Law Commission, is silent on duration throughout.

So if you want a figure you can hold the DoI to, there is not one. Ask the Department directly about the current queue when the answer really matters to a launch date.

What does IP Sewa's own bulletin data show?

One leg of the journey is measurable, because we extract every entry from the DoI's Industrial Property Bulletin and each entry carries its own filing date. Comparing that date to the issue's publication date gives a real, first-party interval.

Reading our database on 2 October 2026 across the twelve most recent issues — Vol 19 No 4 of 5 June 2025 through Vol 20 No 7 of 16 September 2026 — we measured 9,845 entries, every one carrying a convertible filing date on or before its issue date.

The median gap from filing to publication was 3.5 months. A quarter of marks reached print within 1.6 months, three quarters within 11.4 months, and the slowest tenth waited more than 41 months.

Why is the average so much higher than the median?

Because each issue mixes two populations. Most of a bulletin is recent filings moving through at speed, and a minority is a backlog of much older applications finally reaching print.

Per issue, the median gap ran between 1.1 and 6.8 months across those twelve bulletins. The per-issue mean ran from 5.5 to 26.1 months, dragged up by that tail. Quote an average and you describe a page nobody is on.

The practical reading is that a straightforward filing is usually advertised within a few months, while a file with a problem can sit for years. The spread, not the midpoint, is the thing to plan around.

What does the bulletin not tell you?

The end of the story. A bulletin entry records that a mark was published. It does not record whether it was later registered, when a registration certificate issued, or whether anybody objected.

So the leg from publication through the objection period to a certificate in your hand is simply not in any dataset we or anyone else can read. That is the honest reason our end-to-end figure is an estimate while our first-leg figure is a measurement.

It also means our free trademark database and the application-number lookup will tell you a mark was published and when, but never its registration status.

What are the stages, in order?

1. Clearance search. Check earlier marks, similar spellings and sounds in the class you need, before you commit to a name.
2. Filing. Sec. 17(1) wants the Schedule 1(c) form with four specimens of the mark and the application fee. If someone files for you, Sec. 20 covers the appointment and a power of attorney records it.
3. Examination. Sec. 18(1) has the Department investigate and give you a sufficient opportunity to be heard before deciding.
4. Publication. Sec. 21A(1) requires the Department to publish registered designs and trade marks, with particulars of renewal or cancellation, for public information.
5. Objection period. Anyone with an objection may complain to the Department, and it inquires before acting.
6. Registration and certificate. The Schedule 2(c) certificate issues on payment of the registration fee under Sec. 18(2).

If you want help compressing the first stage, our search and clearance service delivers a written opinion before you spend anything on filing.

Is the opposition window 35 days or 90?

Both numbers are in circulation, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Sec. 21A(2) says a complaint about published particulars must reach the Department "within a period of 35 days from the date of such publication".

Nepali trademark practice, as described to us by the design-partner firm, works to an opposition period of 90 days for trade marks, while patents and designs use 35 days. Our own service pages and lifecycle tooling follow the 90-day practice.

What we will not do is state one and hide the other. If a deadline is live on your file, confirm it with the Department of Industry that week and bring in opposition support rather than reading an article.

Does publication come before or after registration?

The Act and practice read differently, and it changes what "how long does registration take" even means. Sec. 21A(1) speaks of publishing "the trade-marks registered under Section 18", which reads as publication after registration.

Practice describes the opposite order: examination, publication, objection window, then registration. Our own data supports the practice reading. Marks in the September 2026 issue carried filing dates six days before that issue went out, and no examination and registration fits inside six days.

We state what both sources agree on — that publication and the objection period sit between filing and your certificate — and leave the sequencing question to an advocate on your file.

Which stages can you actually control?

Fewer than you would like, which is why so much "speed up your trademark" advice is empty. You control preparation and responsiveness. The Department controls the queue, and the Act controls the objection period.

Does filing in more NICE classes take longer?

It multiplies the work rather than extending any single clock. Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category of goods or services, so three classes means three applications moving independently.

Each is examined and published on its own, and they will not necessarily appear in the same issue. A brand that needs a product class and a retail class can therefore reach certificate on two different dates.

Check which classes you actually need first with our NICE classification finder. The classification itself is maintained internationally by WIPO, though the Department applies it under Sec. 18A(1).

Can you speed trademark registration up?

There is no fast-track route in the Act and none that we are aware of in practice. What you can remove is self-inflicted delay, which in our experience is most of the avoidable waiting.

File a mark that can actually register, with a goods description matching what you really sell, and reply to any Departmental query the week it arrives. Run the name through our conflict checker before anything is printed.

The one genuinely decisive lever is filing early, because Nepal is first-to-file. A fortnight of hesitation can cost you the mark outright, which no amount of speed later repairs.

What should you do while you wait?

Keep trading and keep records. Dated invoices, packaging proofs, menus and signage photographs all help if the mark is later questioned, and Sec. 18C can cancel a registration not brought into use within a year of registration.

Do not describe the mark as registered before the certificate arrives. Sec. 18B prohibits using a mark as a registered trade mark without registering it, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods.

Watch the bulletins too, for your own mark and for anyone filing close to it. If something worrying appears, the objection period is short and our team would rather hear from you early.

A worked example

Imagine a Lalitpur bakery files "Chiya Ghar" in Class 30 in January. This is an illustration, not a real case. On our measured distribution, it is more likely than not to appear in a bulletin before July.

Publication is not the certificate. The objection period then runs, and if nobody objects the registration and certificate follow on a timetable the Department sets and does not publish.

If the bakery also wants its café services covered, that is a second application in a different class, filed the same day but likely published in a different issue. Our registration service tracks each one separately.

Common mistakes

• Treating 12–14 months as a promise. It is a planning figure, not a Departmental commitment.
• Reading a bulletin entry as proof of registration, when it only proves publication.
• Quoting the average gap from our data instead of the median, which overstates the wait for most filings.
• Printing packaging and signage before the clearance search comes back.
• Assuming one application covers every product, when Sec. 18A(2) needs one per class.
• Letting a Departmental query sit, which adds your delay to the Department's.
• Forgetting the renewal term: the seven years under Sec. 18D begin at registration, not at filing.

In short

Plan on 12–14 months end to end and hope for better, knowing that no Department of Industry service standard supports any published figure. The part we can measure, filing to Industrial Property Bulletin publication, had a median of 3.5 months across 9,845 recent entries, with a sixth of them waiting over two years.

Confirm the current position with the DoI before you commit to a launch date, and use our free tools and IP services to remove the delay that is actually yours to remove.

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Need a date you can actually plan a launch around? Contact our team with your mark and classes, and we will tell you where the real risk to your timeline sits.