IP registration requirements in Nepal are set by one statute. The Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 says who may own a right, what qualifies for protection, and what each application must physically contain. The Department of Industry applies those rules. Practice then adds a few documents on top.
Key takeaways
- Sec. 2(c) lets any firm, company or individual own a trade mark, so company registration is not a precondition in the Act.
- A trademark filing takes four specimens of the mark under Sec. 17(1); a design takes four copies of the drawings under Sec. 13(1).
- Sec. 5 asks two things of an invention: that it is new, and useful to the general public.
- Sec. 4(1) makes you state how you acquired the invention if you are not the inventor.
- Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each NICE classification class.
- Sec. 18C cancels a registered mark not brought into use within one year — a requirement that starts after you win.
What does "IP registration requirements" actually mean here?
Three separate tests, and people think only about the third. One for the owner, one for the thing protected, and a list of papers the Department of Industry (DoI) will not file without.
Fail the first and the application is in the wrong name. Fail the second and no paperwork saves it. Fail the third and you lose a week.
For the order of events after filing, see how trademark registration runs in Nepal.
Who is allowed to own a Nepali IP right?
Sec. 2(c) defines a trade mark as a sign used by "any firm, company or individual". That is the whole ownership test. No residency rule, no minimum size of business.
For a patent the bar is higher. Sec. 6(1)(b) blocks registration where the applicant is neither the inventor nor someone who acquired rights from the inventor. Ownership must trace back to the person who made the thing.
Sec. 20 lets you appoint an attorney or legal practitioner and treats their actions as yours. That is the clause a Power of Attorney rests on.
Do you need a registered company first?
Not under the Act. Nothing in Sec. 16, Sec. 17 or Sec. 18 conditions a trademark filing on company registration, and an individual may hold a mark outright.
In practice the DoI counter asks a Nepali business applicant for its industry certificate and latest tax clearance letter, which only a trading business has. The law does not demand incorporation; the routine expects proof you trade. A newly formed company will not have a tax clearance yet, so confirm the Department of Industry's current checklist.
What company registration does not do is protect the name. Our note on where company and trademark documents overlap sets the two systems side by side.
What must a trademark application physically contain?
Sec. 17(1) is unusually concrete. The application goes on the Schedule 1(c) form with four specimens of the mark. Not one image emailed in — four.
Those specimens define the claim. File a plain wordmark and you protect the word; file the logo in full colour and you protect that layout. Our guide to filing a logo as a trade mark covers the choice.
Practice then adds a notarised Power of Attorney, signed, sealed and attested by two witnesses, plus a board resolution where a company applies. The full documents checklist lists them in filing order.
Which NICE classification class must you name?
Sec. 18A(1) lets the Government classify goods and services by notification in the Nepal Gazette. The DoI uses the international NICE classification list of 45 classes under that power.
Sec. 18A(2) then does the expensive part: a separate application for each class. One brand sold as packaged food and served in a restaurant is two filings, not one with two boxes ticked.
Sec. 18A(3) allows a mark registered in one class to be registered in another where it falls. Work the real list out with the NICE class finder before setting a budget.
What can stop a trade mark being registered?
The proviso to Sec. 18(1) sets out the refusal grounds, and one is wider than people expect. A mark is refused if it hurts the prestige of an individual or institution, damages public conduct or morality, undermines the national interest, or harms the reputation of another person's trade mark.
That last limb catches new brands: no identical mark and no deliberate copying is needed. Sec. 18(1) also refuses a mark already registered in another name.
Refusal is not the only risk: once an accepted mark is published, a third party can object inside the opposition period. Run the brand through the conflict checker, then read the real entries on Nepal's published trademark record.
What does a patent application have to explain?
Sec. 4(1) lists four things, all more demanding than a product description. You give the inventor's name, address and occupation. If you are not the inventor, you explain how and in what manner you acquired title.
You then set out the process of manufacturing, operating or using the invention, and the theory or formula behind it. Sec. 4(2) adds maps and drawings.
That rule quietly decides a lot of startup filings. If a contractor built the prototype, the transfer paperwork belongs in the application. Our note on whether an invention qualifies covers subject matter.
What test does the Department apply to an invention?
Sec. 5(1) asks two questions and only two: whether the invention is new, and whether it is useful to the general public. The Act never uses the words inventive step, obviousness or prior art.
Treat that as a drafting fact, not a licence to file anything. Examiners look hard at what already exists, and what "new" means here is worth reading before any public disclosure.
Sec. 6(1) adds the hard bars: already registered to someone else, applicant not entitled, likely to harm public health, conduct, morality or the national interest, or contrary to Nepali law.
What does an industrial design filing require?
Sec. 13(1) asks for the Schedule 1(b) form with four copies of the design plus maps, drawings and particulars. In practice that means plan, elevation and side views: the drawings are the claim.
Sec. 14(1) sets the refusal grounds: a design that hurts the prestige of an individual or institution, damages public conduct or morality, undermines the national interest, or is already registered elsewhere.
Note the gap. Novelty is not written into Sec. 14 as an express bar the way it is into Sec. 5. The DoI does examine designs for novelty in practice, and practitioners file a notarised statement of originality.
Which documents does practice add to the Act's list?
The Act names forms, specimens and drawings. The counter expects more, and that gap is where filings stall. This table sets the statutory core against what a Nepali applicant is usually asked for.
| Right | What the Act itself names | What practice adds | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade mark | Schedule 1(c) form, four specimens of the mark, Sec. 17(1). | Notarised Power of Attorney, board resolution, industry certificate, tax clearance letter. | Seven years, renewed any number of times. |
| Patent | Schedule 1(a) form, inventor details, chain of title, process, theory, maps and drawings, Sec. 4. | Notarised Power of Attorney, specification and claims drafted for examination. | Seven years, renewable twice. |
| Industrial design | Schedule 1(b) form, four copies of the design with drawings, Sec. 13(1). | Notarised Power of Attorney, notarised statement of originality, plan, elevation, side views. | Five years, renewable twice. |
Notarisation is not decoration. A Power of Attorney is signed, sealed and attested by two witnesses, and a defect sends the packet back. The attestation requirements guide explains the formats.
How should you assemble the filing packet?
Work in this order and the counter visit is short. Work out of order and you collect documents that name the wrong owner.
- Settle the owner. Individual or company — every later document names that party.
- Prove the chain of title. For a patent or commissioned design, get the inventor's or designer's assignment in writing.
- Fix the subject matter. Finalise the specimen, drawing set or specification. Changing it later means amending the application.
- Check for conflicts. Search existing marks and, for an invention, what is already public.
- Count the classes. Sec. 18A(2) charges per class, so count filings rather than brands.
- Collect the authority papers. Power of Attorney, board resolution, industry certificate and tax clearance, notarised.
- File and keep the receipt. The filing date is what first-to-file rewards.
Once filed, an unopposed trademark application typically runs about 12 to 14 months, and 6 to 8 only in the smoothest cases. Those figures are for trade marks, not for a patent or a design.
To hand the packet over instead, our trademark registration service and patent registration service cover preparation and prosecution. Designs run through the industrial design service.
What do foreign applicants have to add?
Sec. 21B is blunt: title to a patent, design or trade mark registered abroad is not valid in Nepal unless registered here too. Nepal is outside the Madrid System, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Hague System, so nothing extends automatically.
Sec. 21C offers something useful. The Department may register a foreign-registered right without conducting enquiries if the foreign certificate is filed with the application, and it extends Paris Convention facilities to the holder.
That means a certified English copy of the home registration plus the usual authority papers. The foreign applicant document list has the full set, and WIPO publishes which treaties Nepal has joined.
Which requirements survive registration?
Two, and both arrive after the celebration. Sec. 18C says a registered trade mark not brought into use within one year will be inquired into and cancelled.
Sec. 10 catches patentees: the holder must deposit a copy of the design or model of the article made under the patent with the National Archive. That duty appears on no other checklist we have seen.
Sec. 18B runs the other way. No mark may be used as a registered trade mark without being registered, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods, ordered by the Department.
How long do the rights last, and how often can you renew?
A trade mark runs seven years under Sec. 18D, a patent seven under Sec. 8, a design five under Sec. 14A. Renewal is filed within 35 days of expiry under Sec. 23B, with a six-month late window on a fine before the registration is cancelled automatically.
Sec. 23B(3) caps repeats in one sentence that is easy to misread. A patent may be renewed not more than twice for seven years at a time, a design not more than twice for five years at a time, and a trade mark any number of times.
So a trade mark can run indefinitely, a patent about twenty-one years, a design about fifteen. Read the consolidated text at the Nepal Law Commission.
Common mistakes before filing
Most applications that come back to us had one of these, and each is cheaper to fix before submission.
- Filing a brand in a founder's personal name when the company will hold the value.
- Reading a company-name approval as brand protection.
- Budgeting for one application when goods and services sit in different classes.
- Showing an invention at a trade fair before taking advice on novelty.
- Giving a patent drafter marketing copy instead of the process and theory Sec. 4(1) asks for.
- Letting a registered mark sit unused past its first year, against Sec. 18C.
Timing is the other recurring error. Nepal is first-to-file, so an earlier complete application beats a longer history of use. See how long registration takes.
A worked example
Take a Pokhara workshop building a folding solar dryer with a distinctive curved frame. This is an illustration, not a real case, but the split is typical.
The drying mechanism is a Sec. 5 question: new, and useful to the public? The frame's appearance is a design question under Sec. 13. The brand is a trade mark, and dried fruit sold under the same name is a second class.
Three rights, one product, three packets. The bigger risk is the welder who drew the frame: with no written assignment, the chain of title Sec. 4(1) wants is missing.
In short
Nepal's requirements are specific and findable. Decide the owner, test the subject matter against Sec. 5, Sec. 14 or Sec. 18, then build the packet the Act names and practice expects. Confirm current counter requirements with the Department of Industry, because forms and fee schedules change more often than the statute.
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Not sure which right you need, or whose name belongs on it? Send us the product and the plan through our contact page and we will tell you what the packet must contain.
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