An online business registers a trademark the same way any other business does: one application per NICE class at the Department of Industry, under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965. What changes is which class fits, who the applicant should be, and how you prove you are using the mark.
Key takeaways
- A domain name, a social handle and an app listing are not trademarks. None of them gives you a right under the Act.
- Nepal is first-to-file, and an online launch is public, so waiting is the main risk a digital business runs.
- An online service usually sits in Classes 35, 41 or 42, and downloadable software in Class 9. Sec. 18A means one class per application.
- The applicant should be whoever really owns the brand, even if the business is one person and a page today.
- Sec. 18C lets the DoI cancel a mark not used within a year, so keep dated evidence that a digital brand is actually trading.
What counts as an online business here?
Any business whose customers find, buy or use it mainly through a website, app, marketplace or social page. That covers a freelance studio, a SaaS product, an online school, a booking platform and a storefront on someone else's marketplace.
The law makes no separate category for it. Sec. 2(c) defines a trademark as a word, symbol or picture used by a firm, company or individual to distinguish its goods or services, and that is the same test online.
If you sell physical products through your own store, the class stack is different enough to be worth its own guide. See our piece on trademark registration for e-commerce businesses for that side.
Is your domain name a trademark?
No. Buying a domain is a contract with a registrar for an address. It gives you no right under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965, and it does not stop a stranger applying to register the same word as a mark.
The reverse is also true: a registered trademark is not a domain right. The two systems run separately and neither one hands you the other.
What a registration does give you is a documented claim to the brand, which is what you need when a copycat address appears. Deciding whether the name can be registered at all is the job of a clearance search.
Does your social handle protect the name?
Not in law. The platform owns the account, sets the rules, and can suspend or reassign a handle under its own policy rather than Nepali law.
That is a thin foundation for a business whose whole identity is the name. A brand that lives on rented ground should own the one thing it can: the registered mark.
Our guide to protecting a business name in Nepal sets out what to lock down first when the business is young.
Who should be the applicant?
The person or company that genuinely owns the brand. For a solo founder that may be the individual; Sec. 2(c) allows a firm, company or individual to hold a mark.
Do not file in the name of the designer who drew the logo, or of a friend whose documents were easier to gather. Moving ownership afterwards is a separate recorded action at the DoI, not a correction.
If you plan to incorporate soon, decide before filing whether the company or the founder should be on the certificate. Our guide for startups and small businesses covers the trade-off.
Will the DoI refuse a descriptive online name?
It can. Sec. 18 lets the Department of Industry refuse a mark already registered in another person's name, one that damages the goodwill of another's trademark, one that harms a person's or an institution's reputation, and one against public morality or the national interest.
Descriptiveness is the quieter problem. "Online Grocery Nepal" tells a customer what you sell rather than who you are, so it is weak on examination and weaker still to enforce.
Digital brands are especially prone to it, because a searchable, keyword-shaped name feels like an advantage. A name built for search engines is often the hardest one to own.
Which NICE class fits an online service?
Nepal uses the NICE Classification, 45 classes in all: 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services. A digital business almost always sits in the service half, and often in more than one class.
| What you actually provide | Class usually looked at | Worth checking |
|---|---|---|
| Downloadable app or software product | Class 9 | Whether you supply software or a service |
| Online retail, marketplace or advertising | Class 35 | Whether you also sell own-brand goods |
| Online courses, training or content | Class 41 | Whether any of it is a software product |
| SaaS, hosting, development, design | Class 42 | Whether the product is also downloadable |
| Your own branded physical goods | The goods class | A separate application from the service |
Use the free NICE class finder for a first reading when the description is hard to place. It does not replace a considered decision before filing, and our filing team will tell you if a class is wrong for what you do.
Do you need Class 35 as well?
Only if you actually provide a retail, marketplace or advertising service. Class 35 is about the business of selling, not about having a website.
A studio that designs software for clients does not need it. A platform that lists other sellers' goods almost certainly does. Our explainer on what Class 35 really covers draws the line.
Filing a class you do not trade in is money spent for nothing, and it can weaken you: Sec. 18C allows cancellation where a registered mark is not put into use.
How do you register it, step by step?
- Screen the name. Check the register for identical and similar names in your classes. Our trademark search covers the 71,500 or more marks published in DoI bulletins.
- Fix the applicant and the mark. Decide who owns it and whether you are filing the word, the logo, or both.
- Choose the classes. One application per class under Sec. 18A, based on what you provide today.
- Prepare the file. The form, four specimens of the mark, and the applicant's supporting papers.
- File at the Department of Industry and answer examination. A reply has to meet the ground the examiner actually raised.
- Clear the bulletin window. An accepted mark is published, anyone may oppose within 90 days, then the certificate issues.
The full sequence, with the refusal grounds and the timing, is set out in our pillar guide on how to register a trademark in Nepal. Whether any of it can be done online is answered in can you register a trademark online.
What documents does a digital business need?
The same set as anyone else. A Nepali applicant generally files the application form, the mark label, a notarised power of attorney, the company board resolution, the industry certificate and the latest tax clearance letter. A newly formed company will not have a tax clearance yet, so confirm the Department of Industry's current checklist.
An individual applicant has a shorter file, without the company papers. Either way, confirm the current list with the Department of Industry before notarising anything.
Supply the logo in the version you intend to keep. A later redesign is a different mark, and a certificate follows the artwork that was filed.
How do you prove use without a shop?
This is the question digital businesses get wrong. Under Sec. 18C the DoI may cancel a registered mark not put into use within one year of registration, and a website alone is thin evidence.
Keep dated records that show real trade: invoices, payment records, order confirmations, app store listings, customer emails and advertising spend.
Store them as you go, not when asked. A folder started on the day you launch costs nothing; one assembled two years later rarely convinces anyone.
How long does it take, and when should you file?
Plan for about 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate when nobody objects, with six to eight months at the fastest. Our own bulletin archive shows the filing-to-publication gap alone often runs well over a year.
File before the launch, not after it. An online launch is a public announcement of the name, and in a first-to-file system that is an invitation to anyone who files quicker.
You do not have to wait for the certificate to trade. You do have to accept that until it issues, your position rests on an application rather than a registration.
What does it cost?
The number of classes drives it, because Sec. 18A ties one application to one class. Search depth, document preparation and any examination reply or opposition add to the professional side.
Official charges and professional fees are separate ledgers, and the official ones can change by notice. Use our fee calculator for current figures rather than an older article.
What if you sell abroad as well?
A Nepali registration covers Nepal. Selling from Nepal to customers in India, the Gulf or Europe does not extend it, because trademark rights stop at the border.
Each market needs its own filing. A Nepali filing date can support a priority claim in other Paris Convention countries if you file there within the Convention's time limit, so the order you file in matters.
Our guide on registering a trademark abroad from Nepal goes through the sequencing.
Common mistakes
- Treating the domain as the brand right. It is an address, not a registration.
- Filing only Class 35 because the business is online. The class follows what you provide, not the channel.
- Launching first and filing later. A public launch under first-to-file is a race you started for someone else.
- Filing an old logo. The certificate follows the artwork you submitted.
- Keeping no dated evidence of trading. Sec. 18C makes that a real risk for a digital brand.
- Assuming a Nepali mark travels. It does not; each country is its own filing.
What does this look like in practice?
This is an illustration, not a real case. Two developers in Lalitpur launch a booking app for trekking guides. They own the domain, the handle and the app listing, and they assume the name is theirs.
A year in, a similar name appears in a bulletin for the same kind of service. Nothing they own answers it, because none of it is a registered mark.
Had they filed before launch, in the class covering their service, they would have had a registration to rely on and the 90-day window to object in. Instead the argument starts from scratch.
In short
Register the name your customers type, in the class that matches what you actually provide, in the name of whoever really owns it, and file before the launch.
Keep dated evidence that the brand is trading, and remember that the domain, the handle and the app listing are not the right.
The Act's text is published by the Nepal Law Commission, and WIPO explains the class system on its NICE Classification page.
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If your business lives on a domain, a handle and a listing, the registered mark is the only piece you can actually own. Tell us the name and what you provide, and we will tell you which classes to file and in whose name.
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