• 30 Jul, 2026
  • Updated 16 Oct, 2026
  • International & IP Law
  • IP Sewa
  • 14 min read

Nepal's trademark act is the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965), amended in 1987 and 2006. There is no enacted "IP Act 2073". What carries the year 2073 is the National Intellectual Property Policy — a policy document, not a statute you can file under.

Key takeaways

  • One statute governs trademarks, patents and designs: the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965).
  • The Department of Industry lists it under Acts, and lists राष्ट्रिय बौद्धिक सम्पत्ति नीति, २०७३ — the National Intellectual Property Policy 2073 — under Policies.
  • No Act of 2073 covering industrial property appears on that list at all, so no provision of one can be cited.
  • The Act has been amended exactly twice: 18 October 1987 and 24 November 2006.
  • Almost the whole modern trademark system — term, classes, publication, objections, renewal — arrived in 1987.
  • Nepal is a first-to-file country, and registration is what creates title under Sec. 16.
  • Copyright sits outside this Act entirely, under a separate statute and a separate office.

Which Act is the trademark act Nepal runs on?

Its Nepali title is पेटेण्ट डिजायन र ट्रेडमार्क ऐन, २०२२, and the official English text prints "The Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965)".

Both years describe the same date. The first is Bikram Sambat and the second is the Gregorian equivalent, so 2022 BS is 1965 AD.

People shorten it to the PDTA, the 1965 Act, or simply the trademark act. All four names point at one document, and every trademark, patent and design filing runs through it.

Is there an IP Act of 2073?

No. We checked the Department of Industry's own document library — the list the registering office maintains — and its Acts page carries twenty entries.

The Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 2022 is there in both languages. So are the Companies Act 2063, the Private Firm Registration Act 2014, the Partnership Act 2020 and the Nepal Standards (Certification Mark) Act 2037.

No industrial property Act of 2073 appears on it. That absence is the answer, and it is worth stating plainly, because a lot of online writing treats the 2073 label as live law.

Then what is the 2073 document people mean?

It is a policy. The Department's Policies page lists राष्ट्रिय बौद्धिक सम्पत्ति नीति, २०७३ — the National Intellectual Property Policy, 2073 — beside the Industrial Policy 2067.

A policy states what the government intends. A statute states what the law is, and only a statute creates a right you can register, renew or enforce at a counter.

So the 2073 policy is real and worth reading. It is not the thing you file under, and no clause of it binds the Department today.

Act, policy and bill are three different thingsThree cards. First card, the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 2022 of 1965, an enacted statute, which creates rights, sets terms and is what you file under. Second card, the National Intellectual Property Policy 2073, a government policy, which states intent, guides reform and cannot be filed under. Third card, a draft bill, which has no legal effect until it is passed and authenticated.Only one of these three creates a rightAn ActPatent, Design andTrade Mark Act, 2022.Passed and authenticated.Gives title on registration.Sets terms and renewal.Gives the office its powers.Carries penalties.You file under thisA policyNational IntellectualProperty Policy, 2073.Approved by government.States what it intends.Guides later reform.Creates no filing route.Sets no term or penalty.Direction, not lawA billAny draft industrialproperty legislation.Text may circulate widely.Wording can change.May never be passed.Binds nobody meanwhile.Check before relying on it.Not law until passed
The word "Act" does real work. A policy with a year in its title is not one, however often it is quoted as though it were.

Why does the mix-up matter to a business?

Because the reforms attached to the 2073 label are the ones a business would most like: well-known mark protection, geographical indications, trade secrets and tougher enforcement.

Assuming they are available leads to a filing that cannot be made. Our own reading of the Act finds no machinery for a geographical indication, and no collective or certification mark under the trademark law.

Plan around the law that exists. If reform lands later, an existing registration is a better starting point than a plan that waited for it.

How many times has the Act been amended?

Twice. The consolidation's own markers date the original authentication to 30 August 1965, the First Amendment to 18 October 1987, and the second amendment to 24 November 2006.

The 2006 instrument is not an IP Act in its own right. It is the "Act Made to Amend Some Nepal Acts Relating to Export and Import and Intellectual Property, 2063", an omnibus statute that touched several laws at once.

A third law changed the Act sideways. The Justice Administration Act 2048 (1991) altered where an appeal goes under Sec. 27, which is why the text names an unfamiliar court tier.

What did the 1987 amendment add?

Almost everything a modern trademark practice depends on. The First Amendment inserted Sec. 18A on classification, Sec. 18B on presenting a mark as registered, Sec. 18C on use, Sec. 18D on the seven-year term, and Sec. 21A on publication and objections.

It also added Sec. 14A, the five-year design term, and Sec. 23B, the renewal procedure for all three rights. It repealed the old Sec. 21, which now prints as a blank.

The practical reading is blunt. Before 1987 a registered Nepali trademark had no statutory term, no classification, no publication and no renewal route.

What did the 2006 amendment change?

It inserted the examination wording into Sec. 18 and Sec. 17, so the Department conducts inquiries and gives the applicant a chance to be heard before deciding.

It added the Act's only treaty reference, a sentence in Sec. 21C extending Paris Convention facility to a registration holder — five years after Nepal acceded to the Paris Convention.

It also deleted Sec. 23 and Sec. 23A outright, which is why older copies circulating online still carry rules that no longer exist. Check which consolidation you are reading before quoting it.

The statute line, and where 2073 sitsA horizontal timeline of four legal events. Nineteen thirty-six, an earlier patent, design and trademark law, later repealed. Nineteen sixty-five, the present Act is authenticated. Nineteen eighty-seven, the First Amendment inserts the modern trademark machinery. Two thousand and six, an omnibus amendment adds examination wording and a Paris Convention sentence. Below the line and separate from it, two thousand and sixteen, the National Intellectual Property Policy 2073, marked as a policy and not part of the statute line.Four statutory dates, and one that is notRead off the Act's own markers and the Department's document library1936Earlier lawLater repealed1965The present ActAuthenticated 30 August1987First AmendmentModern mark machinery2006Second amendmentExamination and Paris2073 BS — a policy, off this lineNational Intellectual Property Policy.Listed by the Department under Policies.
Four dates changed the statute. The fifth item is a policy, drawn below the line on purpose.
What the Act contains, and what it does notTwo checklists. On the left, present in the Act: registration creates title, examination with a hearing, classification by Nepal Gazette notification, publication of registered marks with a thirty five day complaint route, a seven year trademark term, renewal with no overall limit, and a Paris Convention sentence. On the right, absent from the Act: any geographical indication, any collective or certification mark, any status for the TM symbol, any mention of the Nice Agreement, any inventive step test, and any reference to Madrid, the Patent Cooperation Treaty or Hague.Counted over the statute text itselfIn the ActRegistration creates title.Examination, with a hearing.Classes, by Gazette notice.Publication of registered marks.A seven year mark term.Renewal, with no limit.One Paris Convention line.Not in the ActGeographical indications.Collective marks.A certification mark route.Any status for the TM sign.The word Nice, anywhere.An inventive step test.Madrid, the PCT or Hague.
The right-hand column is the part that surprises people. Several of those items are exactly what reform is expected to add.

Which sections govern a trademark filing?

A short map beats the whole statute. These are the provisions a Nepali applicant meets, in the order they arrive.

StageSectionWhat it does
TitleSec. 16.Title comes from registration, not from use.
ApplicationSec. 17.Prescribed form, four specimens, fee.
ExaminationSec. 18.Inquiry, a hearing, and the refusal grounds.
ClassesSec. 18A.A separate application for each category.
PublicationSec. 21A.Publication, then 90 days to oppose.
TermSec. 18D.Seven years from the date of registration.
RenewalSec. 23B.Seven years at a time, no overall limit.

The NICE classification is not named in the Act. Sec. 18A(1) is a domestic power to classify goods and services by notification in the Nepal Gazette, and the Department uses the Nice list under it.

How do the three rights differ on term?

A trademark runs seven years from the date on its registration certificate under Sec. 18D, and the renewal term is a further seven years, repeatable without limit.

A patent also runs seven years, but Sec. 23B allows renewal not more than twice, which puts a ceiling of twenty-one years on it.

A design runs five years from registration under Sec. 14A. It is renewable not more than twice at five years each, so fifteen years in all, and a design filing should be diarised from the start. Our renewal calculator works the dates out from a registration date.

A filing, step by step, with its sectionFive stages read downwards. Section 17, file the application with the prescribed form, four specimens and the fee. Section 18, the Department inquires and gives a chance to be heard. Section 18A, a separate application is needed for each category of goods or services. Section 21A, the mark is published and can then be opposed within ninety days. Section 18D, the term runs seven years from registration, renewable under section 23B.Five stages, and the section behind each oneSec. 17.File the applicationPrescribed form, four specimens, the fee.Sec. 18.ExaminationInquiry, then a chance to be heard.Sec. 18A.One class per applicationA second category means a second filing.Sec. 21A.PublicationPublished, then 90 days to oppose.Sec. 18D.Seven year termRenewable under Sec. 23B, without limit.
Every stage of an ordinary filing traces to a numbered section, and four of those five sections were added in 1987.

Where is each right published?

Designs and trademarks are published by the Department under Sec. 21A, and it is trademark publication that fills the Industrial Property Bulletin. Publication opens the opposition period: a published trademark can be opposed within 90 days of its publication. The 35 days in Sec. 21A(2) concern complaints about marks already registered, so rely on the deadline the Department of Industry states and act before the last day.

Patents are different. Sec. 7A says a registered patent is published in the Nepal Gazette, and the word "bulletin" does not appear in the Act at all. That is worth knowing before you start a patent filing.

That distinction matters when you are looking for something. Our trademark database covers the marks published in the Bulletin, so a patent will never appear there.

No. The Act covers patents, designs and trademarks only. Copyright is governed by the Copyright Act 2059 (2002), administered by a separate office under a different ministry.

One logo can raise both questions. The artwork may be a copyright work, while its job as a badge of trade origin is a trademark matter.

IP Sewa does not offer a copyright service, so if your question is purely about a book, song, film or piece of software, the copyright office is the right door. Our copyright background piece explains the shape of it.

How do you work out which law applies to you?

Start from what you want to protect, not from the name of a statute. The route follows quickly.

  1. Name the asset. A brand name, a logo, an invention, a product shape or a creative work — one of these, not "our intellectual property".
  2. Match it to a right. Brand signs are trademarks, inventions are patents, product appearance is a design, and creative works are copyright.
  3. Confirm the office. The first three go to the Department of Industry; copyright does not.
  4. Check the register first. Search published marks with our conflict checker before you commit to a name.
  5. Pick the class. Use the NICE class finder, and remember one application covers one category.
  6. Read the section, not the summary. For the statutory text, the Nepal Law Commission publishes the consolidations.
  7. Get the filing prepared. Our trademark registration service handles the form, the specimens and the correspondence.
  8. Keep the questions somewhere. Our frequently asked questions cover the ones that come up most often.

What does the Act say about a foreign registration?

Sec. 21B is unusually direct: a patent, design or trademark registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is also registered here.

Sec. 21C softens the route rather than the rule. The Department may register a foreign-registered right without conducting enquiries if the foreign certificate is filed with the application.

Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so there is no international registration that reaches Nepal by itself. A foreign owner files here through a representative in Nepal, which means a notarised power of attorney in the paperwork. WIPO publishes the party lists if you want to check a treaty for yourself.

Common mistakes

  • Quoting a provision of an "IP Act 2073". No such Act appears on the Department's own list of Acts.
  • Reading an old copy of the statute. Sec. 23 and Sec. 23A were deleted in 2006 and still appear in pre-2006 texts online.
  • Assuming use creates rights. Nepal is first-to-file, and Sec. 16 ties title to registration.
  • Treating one application as covering a whole business. Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application per category.
  • Using the ® symbol before registration. Sec. 18B forbids presenting a mark as registered when it is not, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods.
  • Looking for a patent in the Bulletin. Patents go to the Nepal Gazette under Sec. 7A.
  • Missing the window after publication. A published trademark can be opposed within 90 days, so act before the last day the Department of Industry states.

How would this look for one business?

Take Himalayan Hearth, a hypothetical Kathmandu firm packing spice mixes and running a small café. This is an illustration, not a real case.

Its name and logo are trademark questions under Chapter 4. The packaged food and the café service sit in different categories, so Sec. 18A(2) means two applications, not one.

A new grinder it builds is a patent question, its jar shape may be a design, and its website photographs are copyright. Four routes, one asset list, and only three lead to the Department of Industry.

Is a new industrial property law coming?

Possibly. A consolidating Industrial Property Bill has been reported for years — the ministry has listed a draft, and press reports say an earlier version lapsed and was redrafted.

We will not set out what it would do. A bill that has lapsed once can change in any direction before it passes, if it passes, so treat every claim about its provisions or its timing as needing a primary-source check. A blog post, a conference slide and a consultant's summary are usually all downstream of the same unverified story. If you already hold a Nepali filing, our application number lookup will tell you what has been published against it.

Until a new Act is authenticated and published, the 1965 Act as amended is the whole of the industrial property statute book, and your renewal dates run off it.

In short

Nepal has one industrial property statute, dated 1965 and amended in 1987 and 2006. The 2073 document is a policy, filed as such by the Department itself.

File under the Act that exists, register early because the country is first-to-file, watch the Bulletin, and diarise the renewal. Reform may improve that later; it does not change this week.

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If you are trying to work out which law covers your brand, invention or product, tell us what you are protecting and we will point you at the right route — contact IP Sewa.

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