Nepali law does not translate the word patent. It borrows it: the statute is the पेटेण्ट डिजायन र ट्रेडमार्क ऐन, २०२२, and a patent is defined there as a useful invention. Protection starts only when the उद्योग विभाग, the Department of Industry, registers it.
Key takeaways
- The Nepali statutory word is पेटेण्ट, a transliteration rather than a translation.
- Sec. 2(a) defines a patent as any useful invention of a new method, process, manufacture, operation or transmission.
- Sec. 5(1) asks the Department only two questions: is it new, and is it useful to the general public.
- The Act never uses the words inventive, obvious, prior art or novelty.
- A registered patent is published in the नेपाल राजपत्र, the Nepal Gazette, under Sec. 7A(1).
- The renewal term is seven years, and Sec. 23B(3) allows renewal not more than twice.
- Nepal is outside the Patent Cooperation Treaty, so there is no international filing route from here.
What does "patent" mean in Nepali?
It means पेटेण्ट. The Department of Industry lists the governing law on its own site as the पेटेण्ट डिजायन र ट्रेडमार्क ऐन, २०२२, using the English word written in Devanagari.
The year २०२२ is Bikram Sambat, or 1965, so the same law is cited in English as the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965.
Two other words matter: the registering body is the उद्योग विभाग, and a patent is published in the नेपाल राजपत्र.
How does the Act itself define a patent?
Sec. 2(a) is short and unusually readable. A patent means any useful invention relating to a new method of process or manufacture, operation or transmission of any material or a combination of materials.
An invention made on the basis of a new theory or formula also counts. Two words carry the definition: it must be new, and it must be useful.
What does registration actually give you?
Sec. 3(1) puts it plainly: a person who wants a right over any patent shall register that patent in their own name under the Act.
Sec. 3(2) then bars anyone else from copying or using it without a transfer of ownership or written permission under Sec. 21D. Sec. 7(1) issues the registration certificate in the form set out in Schedule 2(a).
So the right is a right to exclude, and it begins at registration rather than at invention. The system runs on a first-to-file footing, because Sec. 6(1)(a) refuses a patent already registered to another person.
What does the Department actually examine?
Sec. 5(1) is the examination provision, and it is narrower than most guides suggest. The Department investigates, taking expert advice if it thinks that necessary.
It asks two things: whether the invention is a new invention or not, and whether it is useful to the general public or not.
That is the statutory test in full, and nothing in the section describes how newness is to be measured.
Is there an inventive-step test in Nepal?
Not in the Act. We counted over the official English text published by the Nepal Law Commission, and the words "inventive", "obvious", "prior art" and "novelty" each occur zero times.
Many pages list novelty, inventive step and industrial application as three requirements, which is imported European framing. TRIPS Art. 27(1) and its footnote let a member read "capable of industrial application" as useful, the word Nepal chose.
Treat inventive step as a practical reality that an examiner may weigh, not as a statutory requirement you can point to. Our note on what can be patented here goes further.
When must the Department refuse?
Sec. 6(1) lists four circumstances, and they are about ownership and public interest rather than technical merit.
| Ground in Sec. 6(1) | What it stops |
|---|---|
| Already registered to another person | A second patent over the same invention |
| The applicant is not the inventor and holds no rights from the inventor | Filing on somebody else's work |
| Likely to harm public health, conduct, morality or the national interest | Inventions the state will not monopolise |
| Contrary to prevailing Nepal law | A registration that would break another statute. |
Sec. 6(2) lets the Department cancel an existing registration on the same grounds, after a real chance to show cause.
What goes into the application?
Sec. 4(1) asks for the inventor's name, address and occupation, and how the applicant acquired title if they are not the inventor.
It then wants the process of manufacturing, operating or using the patent, plus any theory or formula the invention rests on, with all available evidence.
Sec. 4(2) adds the map and drawings with particulars, and Schedule 1(A) is a short form signed before two witnesses. The word "claims" appears nowhere in the Act, though practitioners prepare a specification with claims anyway.
So what do you actually hand over?
In practice the bundle is the prescribed form, a notarised power of attorney where an agent acts, the specification and claims, the drawings, and a certified copy of any earlier foreign filing you rely on.
Where is a Nepali patent published?
In the नेपाल राजपत्र. Sec. 7A(1) says patents registered under the Act shall be published by the Department in the Nepal Gazette for public information.
It is not published in the Industrial Property Bulletin. The word "Bulletin" occurs zero times in the Act, and the Bulletin carries trade marks.
Our own archive agrees: across more than 120 issues we index, every one of the 71,500 or so entries on our trademark database is a trade mark, not a patent.
Does publication come before or after grant?
On the Act's wording, after: Sec. 7A(1) speaks of patents registered under the Act, and Sec. 7 issues the certificate first.
Our advocate note describes publication following acceptance instead, and the two cannot be reconciled from the text alone.
Ask the Department or an advocate which order applies today, because it changes when your invention becomes public.
Who may read the technical file?
Sec. 7A(2) separates the public notice from access to the detail. Anyone who wants to see or copy the particulars, maps or drawings may do so after paying the prescribed fee.
The split is deliberate: the Gazette announces that a patent exists, while only a paying visitor gets the teaching behind it.
When does the objection clock start?
This is the Act's most easily misread provision. Sec. 7A(3) gives an objector 35 days from the date of seeing or copying the patent.
Compare designs, which get 35 days from the date of publication, and trade marks, which have a 90-day opposition period from Industrial Property Bulletin publication. The clocks are worded differently on purpose, and Sec. 7A(4) then requires the Department to act after inquiries.
How long does a Nepali patent last?
Sec. 8(1) gives the patentee seven years from the date of registration under Sec. 7, unless renewed under Sec. 23B.
Sec. 23B(3) sets the ceiling: renewal not more than twice, seven years at a time, so twenty-one years is the maximum. Each renewal falls due within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on a fine.
A trade mark has no such ceiling, which is one reason a strong product needs both, and our renewal calculator handles the dates.
How do you file, step by step?
- Keep it confidential. The Act asks whether the invention is new, so a public demonstration first is an avoidable risk.
- Settle the ownership. Sec. 6(1)(b) refuses an applicant who is neither the inventor nor a person who acquired the rights.
- Write the technical account. The process, the operation and the theory or formula, in the Act's own order.
- Prepare the drawings. Sec. 4(2) treats the maps and drawings as part of the application, not as decoration.
- Appoint a representative. Sec. 20 recognises an attorney or legal practitioner acting for you.
- File and answer. Sec. 5(2) requires notice if the Department concludes the patent cannot be registered.
- Deposit with the Archives. Sec. 10 requires a copy of the design or model of the article made under the patent.
What happens if someone copies a registered patent?
Sec. 11 is the enforcement provision. A person who breaches Sec. 3 is fined by order of the Department according to the gravity of the offence.
The same section confiscates the goods or commodities related to the offence, which for a manufacturer is usually the heavier consequence, and Sec. 25 allows compensation for proven loss.
Start by comparing the accused product with what you actually registered. Our guide to patent infringement in Nepal works through that comparison.
Where a brand as well as an invention is copied, our enforcement team handles the trade-mark side of the dispute.
Can you appeal a decision?
Yes. Sec. 27 allows anyone dissatisfied with an order of the Department to appeal to the Appellate Court within 35 days, whether it refused, cancelled or enforced.
Can a patent be sold or licensed?
Yes, and the route runs through the Department rather than through a private contract alone. Sec. 21D lets the owner transfer ownership or approve use in writing, on a joint application by both parties.
Sec. 22 obliges the Department to keep a register of patents, designs and trade marks showing both registration and cancellation.
Can you file internationally from Nepal?
Not through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. WIPO's own depositary table, dated 19 May 2026, lists 159 PCT states and Nepal is not among them.
There is no receiving office here and no international application open to a Nepali applicant, so every foreign market needs its own national filing.
Nepal does hold the Paris Convention, so a priority claim can preserve an earlier date abroad, and the WIPO country profiles set out what each office requires. Our note on filing abroad from Nepal covers the sequence.
Does a foreign patent protect you here?
No. Sec. 21B says title to a patent registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered in Nepal as well.
There is a shortcut, though. Sec. 21C lets the Department register a foreign-registered patent without conducting any enquiries if the foreign certificate is enclosed.
The same section says the Department shall extend the Paris Convention facility to that holder, so confirm current practice with the Department of Industry first.
What cannot be protected by a patent?
A brand name, logo or slogan is a trade mark question, and Nepal uses the NICE classification of 45 classes, which the class finder helps you pick.
The look of a product, as opposed to how it works, belongs in industrial design registration instead.
A bare discovery or abstract theory with no method attached does not meet Sec. 2(a), and there is no utility-model tier below it. See what cannot be patented for the boundary cases.
Common mistakes
- Demonstrating first, filing later. Newness is the first thing Sec. 5 asks about.
- Looking for the patent in the Bulletin. The Gazette is where Sec. 7A(1) puts it.
- Calling a pending application a patent. The right begins at registration under Sec. 3(1).
- Assuming a foreign grant travels. Sec. 21B says it does not.
- Missing the third renewal that does not exist. Sec. 23B(3) stops at two.
- Protecting the machine and not the name on it.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Biratnagar workshop develops a sediment filter for small drinking-water systems and wants to sell it nationally.
The mechanism may be patentable if it is new and useful, while the housing's shape is a design question and the product name is a trade mark question. The workshop files before its trade-fair launch.
What it cannot do is extend the patent past year twenty-one, so the commercial plan must earn out inside that window.
In short
Patent in Nepali is पेटेण्ट, and the law behind it asks two questions rather than three: is the invention new, and is it useful.
Protection begins at registration with the उद्योग विभाग, is published in the नेपाल राजपत्र, and runs seven years with two renewals at most.
If you are weighing whether an invention is worth filing, talk to our patent team before you show it to anyone.
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Every invention is different, and the Act leaves a great deal to practice. If you want a view on whether yours is worth filing here, describe it to us in confidence.
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