Naming Your Startup: Pick a Brand You Can Register

To register a brand name in Nepal, choose a sign that identifies your startup, search earlier marks, match the correct goods or services, and file at the Department of Industry (DoI). Company-name approval, a domain and social handles are useful checks, but none substitutes for trademark registration.

Key takeaways

• Create several distinctive candidates before becoming attached to one name.
• Search exact words, sound-alikes, spelling variants, translations and similar logos.
• Company registration and trademark registration are separate decisions by different offices.
• Use the Nice Classification to map each actual product or service before filing.
• Decide whether the founders or the incorporated company should own the application.
• Nepal is first-to-file, so complete the search and filing before an expensive public launch.

What makes a startup name useful as a trademark?

A trademark must distinguish one business's goods or services from another's. A startup name works better when customers can recognise it as a source sign rather than merely as the ordinary name or a description of the product.

Coined, unexpected or suggestive names often give a founder more room to build a distinct identity. That spectrum is a practical naming tool, not wording found in Nepal's Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965. The DoI applies the statutory examination and refusal rules.

The Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965 is a common English styling of the same statute title. This article uses “Trade Mark” when referring to the consolidated Act and “trademark” for the right in ordinary prose.

Why are ordinary product names risky?

A founder cannot reasonably expect to control the everyday word everyone needs for the product. A purely descriptive phrase can also be difficult to defend because competitors need language for qualities, place, function or intended users.

Use a strong house mark with a clear tagline instead. The house mark identifies the startup; the tagline explains what it does. The startup trademark guide shows how the two roles fit together.

What does Sec. 18 say about refusal?

Sec. 18 requires examination and a chance for the applicant to be heard. The proviso permits refusal where the mark harms a person or institution's prestige, public conduct or morality, national interest, another person's trademark reputation, or where it is already registered in someone else's name.

The section does not use modern labels such as “absolute grounds,” “relative grounds” or “acquired distinctiveness.” Apply the statutory text carefully instead of presenting a foreign trademark vocabulary as if it were Nepal's legislation. The Nepal Law Commission publishes official legal materials.

How should founders build a shortlist?

Begin with a written naming brief: product, audience, tone, language, expansion plans and words competitors already overuse. Generate several different directions rather than minor spelling variations of one idea.

Screen each candidate for pronunciation in Nepali and English, unintended meanings and whether customers can remember and spell it. The brand-name generator can help create options, but generated names still require human review and clearance.

How should a startup search the name?

Search the complete mark and its distinctive parts. Include spacing, plural forms, transliterations, similar sounds and obvious misspellings. For logos, compare shapes, devices and layout rather than relying only on word results.

IP Sewa's trademark database covers marks published in DoI bulletins. It does not show every filed-but-unpublished application or confirm current registration status. Use the conflict checker to structure an initial review, then obtain a deeper assessment before launch.

Does company registration protect the brand?

No. The Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) records the company name, while the DoI administers trademark registration. Approval in one system does not guarantee acceptance or exclusivity in the other.

Check both before incorporation where practical, but treat them as separate decisions. A domain, app-store listing and social handle are separate again. The brand, domain and handle guide helps coordinate the checks.

Which Nice classes should the startup choose?

Sec. 18A allows goods and services to be classified and requires a separate application for each category. In practice, the DoI uses the Nice Classification, while Nepal is not a party to the Nice Agreement.

Classify what the startup actually sells. Downloadable software and hosted software services, for example, are not automatically the same filing. Use the Nice class finder and check current wording through WIPO's official classification.

Who should own the trademark application?

Decide whether a founder or the incorporated company is the intended long-term owner. Filing casually in one founder's name can complicate investment, departure, licensing or sale when everyone assumed the company owned the brand.

Record the decision in board and founder documents and keep applicant details consistent. The owner and applicant search can help review published ownership names, but legal effect and any transfer should be checked separately.

If the company does not yet exist, document what will happen after incorporation instead of relying on memory. A later change in owner is not merely an edit to a pitch deck; it may require a separate legal and DoI process.

Should the startup file a word mark or logo?

A word-mark application focuses on the wording, while a logo or combined application covers the visual sign as filed. A startup with a changing visual system should not assume one early logo filing protects every later redesign.

Assess whether the name and device each justify a separate application. The logo-registration guide explains that choice, while the trademark search service can review word and device conflicts.

How does the startup filing process work?

1. Write the naming brief. Define the offer, audience and expansion plan.
2. Create a real shortlist. Keep several distinct naming directions.
3. Run clearance searches. Compare words, sounds, devices and related classes.
4. Check practical identifiers. Review OCR, domains, handles and app stores separately.
5. Choose the applicant. Align founder and company ownership documents.
6. Classify the activity. Prepare focused goods or services wording for each class.
7. File at the DoI. Preserve the acknowledgement and monitor examination.
8. Track publication. Review the governing opposition notice and later certificate.

The registration guide explains the administrative stages. IP Sewa's trademark registration service can prepare and manage the national application.

Which documents should be ready before filing?

Prepare the selected mark, applicant identity, address, class and focused goods-or-services wording. Where a representative acts, include the required power of attorney. A company applicant and an individual applicant should not be assumed to have identical supporting records.

Foreign registration or priority claims can require additional evidence, translations or certification. Do not copy an old checklist into a new file. Confirm the current requirements for the applicant type with the Department of Industry before submission.

Keep the signed set, label and acknowledgement together after filing. Consistent applicant spelling matters across corporate records, authority documents and the registration certificate, especially if the startup later raises investment or transfers the mark.

What happens after the application is filed?

The DoI examines the mark and may hear the applicant before deciding whether registration is appropriate. An accepted mark is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, giving interested parties an opportunity to oppose under the governing notice.

Current DoI notices provide a 90-day opposition period. Do not promise a fixed registration date; examination, corrections, publication and opposition can change the path. The opposition service can assess a published conflict or response.

How long can the registration last?

Sec. 18D gives a trademark a seven-year term from registration. Sec. 23B allows a further seven-year renewal term any number of times while the renewal requirements are met.

The ordinary renewal deadline is within 35 days after expiry, followed by a statutory late route. Keep the registration certificate and use the renewal calculator as a diary aid.

What should foreign founders know?

Nepal is not part of the Madrid System, so an international trademark registration does not automatically extend here. Protection requires a national DoI filing. Sec. 21C addresses a foreign-registered mark and the certificate submitted with the application.

A Paris Convention priority claim may be relevant when its conditions and evidence are met. Sec. 20 permits representation but does not state that every foreign applicant must use a local agent. Confirm the current administrative route and documents for the applicant.

Common mistakes

• Choosing one name too early. Keep alternatives until clearance is complete.
• Searching only exact spelling. Sound, translation and device similarity also matter.
• Equating OCR approval with trademark rights. The two systems are separate.
• Copying another startup's classes. Classify the real goods or services.
• Filing under the wrong owner. Align the application with company plans.
• Using ™ or ® as proof. The Act gives ™ no special status and Sec. 18B bars presenting an unregistered mark as registered.

Another mistake is waiting until investors or distributors request a certificate. Filing after launch can turn a naming issue into a rebrand, contractual problem and customer-confusion risk.

What would a realistic startup example look like?

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Lalitpur delivery startup considers “Fast Kathmandu Delivery,” then creates a coined alternative, “Mivora.” The team searches both names, sound variants and relevant service classes before committing to artwork.

The founders incorporate the company, document company ownership of the chosen mark, and file the word mark before public launch. They use a descriptive tagline to explain delivery services without asking the DoI to treat ordinary service language as the main brand.

In short

Choose a startup name that identifies your business rather than describing the product. Search it broadly, check company and digital identifiers separately, classify the actual offer, settle ownership and file early. A memorable name is valuable only when the startup can use and protect it with manageable risk.

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Before committing to packaging, code or advertising, contact IP Sewa for a startup name clearance and filing review.