A trademark conflict search tests your proposed mark against marks already on Nepal's public record before you file at the Department of Industry (DoI). It looks for anything an examiner could call confusingly similar, not only the identical name. Run it before you print anything.
Key takeaways
- A conflict search is a risk assessment of your own mark, not a status lookup on someone else's.
- Sec. 18 of the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965 lets the DoI refuse a mark that damages another mark's goodwill.
- Nepal's courts read similarity broadly: a prefix or suffix on somebody else's word is still deceptive similarity.
- A well-known mark has been protected across classes here, so a clean result in your own class is not the end of it.
- No public search sees applications filed but not yet published. That is the real blind spot.
- Nepal is first-to-file, so search early, decide quickly, and record what you checked.
What is a trademark conflict search?
It is the check you run before filing, to see whether an earlier mark stands in your way. You are looking for confusion, not copies.
The question is not "has anyone used this exact word?" It is "could a buyer think these two brands come from the same business?"
That is what the DoI asks during examination, so it is what your search should answer.
How is this different from checking whether a mark is registered?
Checking a mark is a status lookup: one mark in mind, and you want to know where it stands. Our guide to checking whether a trademark is registered covers that job.
A conflict search runs the other way. You start with a name that exists only in your head and go looking for everything that could be held against it.
One ends at a record. The other ends at a decision.
What grounds does the DoI actually refuse a mark on?
Sec. 18(1) of the Act sets them out, and only one of the four is about an earlier mark being identical. A search built around exact matches misses most of the section.
- It damages the goodwill of another person's trademark.
- It is already registered in another person's name.
- It hurts the prestige or reputation of an individual or institution.
- It adversely affects public conduct, morality or the national interest.
"Damages the goodwill" is the wide one. It is why a name that is merely close, in a field where the two businesses meet, is a real risk.
The Act itself is published by the Nepal Law Commission.
What counts as deceptively similar in Nepal?
Nepali case law gives a usable test. In Kansai Nerolac Paints v. Rukmani Chemical Industries (NKP 2077, Decision No. 10561), the Supreme Court described deceptive similarity as marks that are identical, or modified by a prefix or suffix.
The marks still sound alike, with little visible difference at first glance. That is the whole test.
Read it as a search instruction. Test the word with something added at each end, and the way it sounds spoken aloud in a shop.
The same decision held there is no time limit on cancelling a mark registered in bad faith. Age alone does not make a copied registration safe.
Can a mark in a different class still block you?
Yes, where the earlier mark is well known. On 12 June 2023 the DoI refused a local "VIRGIN" application in Class 35, although Virgin Enterprises held Classes 9 and 38.
It did the same on 10 July 2023 in the Holiday Inn Express opposition, again protecting a well-known mark outside its registered classes.
So treat a famous name as blocked everywhere until an advocate says otherwise.
What can a conflict search never see?
Applications filed but not yet published. Nothing public shows them, and one of them may already be ahead of you.
IP Sewa's trademark search reads every DoI Industrial Property Bulletin, the fullest public source in Nepal. Even so, it shows only marks the DoI has published.
A blank screen means "nothing published that we can match", not "this name is free".
How deep is that blind spot?
Deeper than most people expect. Our own bulletin data puts the gap between filing and publication at around 15 to 18 months, with a wider range across recent issues.
So at any moment roughly a year and a half of filings exist at the DoI and appear nowhere public.
Under first-to-file, a mark inside that window can outrank yours although you could not have found it. That is the argument for filing soon after a clear search.
Which classes should the search cover?
Nepal uses the 45-class NICE Classification, maintained by WIPO, and Sec. 18A requires a separate application for each class.
Map what you sell now and will sell soon with the NICE class finder, then search each of those classes.
Add the classes your customers would connect to yours. A restaurant in Class 43 that bottles its own sauce is also living in Class 30.
To see how crowded a field already is, browse search by NICE class first.
How do you run a conflict search, step by step?
Work outwards from the mark, then narrow down to a decision.
- Fix the mark. Write it as it will appear, and separate the core word from the slogan and the logo.
- Pick the classes. List your goods and services in plain words, then match them to classes.
- Search the exact word. Start with the trademark conflict checker for identical and near matches.
- Search the variants. Work through the list below rather than trusting one spelling.
- Search the goods wording. Use goods and services search for marks covering what you sell.
- Read every close result in full. Owner, class, goods, filing date, bulletin issue.
- Decide, and date the decision. File, rename, or commission an opinion.
Which variants of the name must you test?
Most real conflicts are found by the second or third variant, not the first. The list below is the minimum.
How do you judge what you find?
A result on its own is neutral. What matters is how alike the marks are and how close the goods sit.
| What you found | Why it matters | Sensible next step |
|---|---|---|
| Same word, same class | Directly caught by Sec. 18 | Change the name now |
| Prefix or suffix on your word | The pattern the Supreme Court called deceptive similarity | Get a written opinion |
| Sound-alike in a related class | Buyers hear a brand before they read it | Compare the goods wording |
| A famous brand in any class | Well-known marks have reached across classes here | Treat it as blocked |
| Similar logo, different words | A device mark can conflict on look alone | Look at the printed image |
Class numbers are a filing rule, not a wall. Read the goods wording printed in the entry, because two marks in one class can be nowhere near each other.
What about logos and Devanagari?
Text search is strongest for word marks and weakest for pure device marks, which may have no words to match.
For any close result, open the printed entry and look at the image the DoI published rather than reading the name alone.
Search the Devanagari form too. A brand used in both scripts may already be filed in the one you did not try.
Does an unregistered brand matter?
It can. Nepali practice recognises passing off, which turns on goodwill, misrepresentation, likely confusion and damage rather than a certificate.
A shop trading under a name for years without filing has no registration to find, yet may still have a grievance.
So a serious search reads the market as well as the register: shopfronts, packaging, social profiles, company names.
What if the blocking mark looks dormant?
It may be weaker than it looks, but do not assume so. Under Sec. 18C the DoI may cancel a registered mark not put to use within a year.
A registration also runs seven years and must be renewed, so an old entry may have lapsed since publication.
Neither point can be settled from a bulletin entry. Check the mark's current position with the DoI before relying on it.
Does a foreign registration block you?
Not by itself. Sec. 21B provides that a mark registered abroad has no force in Nepal unless registered here, and Nepal is outside the Madrid System.
The reverse trap catches people. A global brand with no Nepali filing may still defeat you if it is well known, as Virgin and Holiday Inn show.
Foreign applicants file through a local agent appointed by power of attorney, so a search may surface an owner or applicant you do not recognise.
What should you write down?
Treat the search as evidence, not as browsing. If your filing is questioned later, the record of what you checked is what you have.
Note the date, the terms searched, the classes covered, and every close result with its application number.
The application-number lookup helps here, because a number identifies an entry far more reliably than a name.
When is the free check enough?
For an early shortlist it is the right tool. Screen ten candidates, throw out the obvious problems, keep the two that survive.
It stops being enough once real money follows the name: packaging, signage, a shopfront, a funding round, a franchise agreement.
By then the useful product is a judgement, not a result list. Our trademark search and clearance service weighs sound, look, meaning and the goods.
What happens after you file?
The DoI examines the application, and if it qualifies the mark is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin. Publication opens the opposition window.
DoI practice puts that window at 90 days from publication, although the bare text of the Act says 35. Work to the shorter figure if a deadline is close.
If nothing succeeds against it, the mark is registered. Under Sec. 16 title comes with registration, and the DoI issues a registration certificate, good for seven years and renewable.
An unopposed application commonly runs 12 to 14 months, and 6 to 8 months in the smoothest cases. Treat both as typical, not promised.
If a mark copying yours is published, our opposition team can assess it inside the window.
Common mistakes
- Searching once, in one spelling. The first try rarely finds the problem.
- Reading a blank result as clearance. It means nothing published matched, which is narrower.
- Filtering hard by class. Run the name once with no class filter, so a famous mark still surfaces.
- Searching only the register. An unregistered trader with goodwill will not appear in it.
- Searching then waiting. Under first-to-file, a long delay after a clear search is its own risk.
- Keeping no record. A search you cannot describe later is one you cannot rely on.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Biratnagar founder plans "Chulo Fresh" for packaged pickles, with a small café to follow.
The exact name returns nothing in Class 30. A suffix pass returns "Chulo Freshly" for sauces, and a sound-alike pass returns "Chullo Fresh" in Class 43.
Neither is identical, and one spelling in one class would have shown a clean screen. Together they cover both of her planned activities.
She changes the first word, narrows the goods, and files both classes the same day.
In short
A conflict search asks whether your mark can survive examination, not whether one name is taken. Search the variants, search the classes you will grow into, read the goods wording.
Then remember the gap: recent filings are invisible, so a clear result is a reason to move rather than to relax.
Start with the free conflict checker and the other free tools. If the name matters, go on to trademark registration.
People also search for
- How do I check if a trademark is registered?
- How to choose a brand name that passes a trademark search
- How to protect your brand before you launch
- How to use the DoI gazette and bulletin archive
- Documents foreign applicants need to file in Nepal
The Department of Industry is the only body that decides an application. If a result looks close and you would rather not guess, send us the name, the classes and what you sell.
Comments (0)
Leave a comment
Replying to — cancel