Nepal's IP Office (Department of Industry): A Guide

Nepal has no Department of Intellectual Property. Trademarks, patents and industrial designs are handled by one section inside the Department of Industry, and copyright belongs to a different office under a different ministry. Knowing which door to knock on saves a wasted trip.

Key takeaways

• There is no office in Nepal called the Department of Intellectual Property, and no national IP office as such.
• Industrial property — trademarks, patents and designs — sits with the Department of Industry in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu.
• Inside it, the work belongs to the Industrial Property Section (औद्योगिक सम्पत्ति शाखा), one of several sections.
• Sec. 2(d) of the Act allows the Government to name another department by Nepal Gazette notice; it has not, so the Department of Industry is the default.
• Copyright is registered at the Nepal Copyright Registrar's Office under a separate statute and ministry.
• Company names are at the Office of the Company Registrar, which is a third register again.
• There is no public online status tracker for a pending application at any of them.

Why do people search for a department that does not exist?

Because most countries have one. India has a Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, the United States has a Patent and Trademark Office, and the United Kingdom has an Intellectual Property Office.

Nepal never created the equivalent. Its industrial property work was folded into the industry ministry's registration machinery in 1965 and has stayed there ever since, as our full registration guide sets out.

So the search is reasonable and the answer is just different from what you expect. Nothing is missing; the function lives somewhere else.

Which office handles which right?

Three offices, three statutes, three registers. They do not share a file or check each other.

IP Sewa works on the first three rows. We do not offer a copyright service, so if your question is purely about a creative work, the copyright office is the right destination.

What does the Act itself say about the office?

Sec. 2(d) is unusually candid. It defines "Department" as the department prescribed by the Government of Nepal by notification in the Nepal Gazette, "and the Department of Industry unless so prescribed".

In other words the Act left the door open for a dedicated department to be created later, by nothing more than a Gazette notice.

That notice has not been issued, so the default has held for sixty years. It also means a future reorganisation could move the function without amending the statute at all.

Where does the work actually sit inside the Department?

In the Industrial Property Section, listed on the Department's own site as औद्योगिक सम्पत्ति शाखा. It sits alongside sections for licensing and registration, foreign investment and technology transfer, law, technology and environment, planning and industrial statistics, and cottage and small industry promotion.

That is the honest scale of it. Nepal's entire trademark, patent and design registry is one section of a department whose larger business is industry registration and foreign investment.

The Department of Industry publishes each section's page, and the industrial property page is where its own document checklists live. Our guide to how the registry works day to day goes further into the mechanics.

What services does that section provide?

Its published list is narrower than most readers expect, and reading it sets expectations right.

• Registration of a domestic or foreign patent.
• Registration of a domestic or foreign industrial design.
• Registration of a domestic or foreign trademark.
• Renewal of a patent, design or trademark.
• Transfer of ownership and amendment of recorded particulars.
• Complaints in industrial property matters, with the evidence and fee receipt.

Notice what is not on it. There is no advisory service, no clearance search product, and no online tracker — those are things you arrange yourself or through a representative.

Is there an online way to check an application?

Not a public one. We have looked at the Department's site and its industry management information system, and neither exposes the status of a pending industrial property application.

What is public is what has been published. Trademarks appear in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and our trademark database covers the marks in those issues.

So an application number lookup here will find a published mark and tell you its owner, class and issue. It cannot tell you where an unpublished application has reached, because nobody publishes that.

What does the Department ask for on a trademark filing?

Its own checklist for a domestic mark is short: the completed application form, a copy of the permit or registration certificate for the business, proof of PAN or VAT registration, four specimens of the mark, the fee receipt, and a power of attorney where a representative files.

The specimen rule is specific. Four copies, each no larger than eight centimetres square, and each showing the business name and address along with the goods or services the mark is used on.

A foreign applicant adds a certified copy of a foreign registration still in force, any priority-date letter, and a power of attorney with an address for correspondence in Nepal. Our trademark registration service assembles all of it.

Is the business registration checked against the brand?

No, and this is the point the checklist quietly makes. The Department asks you to produce your business registration and tax records; it does not consult the company register to see whether your brand clashes with anyone.

Equally, the Company Registrar does not consult the trademark register when approving a company name. Two separate systems, two separate decisions.

That is why a company name can be approved and the same words still be refused as a mark, or registered by somebody else entirely. Run a conflict check before you assume the name is yours.

How does a filing move through the Department?

The order is fixed even though the pace is not. These are the stages a trademark file passes through.

1. Search first. Look for identical and similar marks with a clearance search before you commit to the name.
2. Pick the category. Nepal applies the NICE classification, and Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category.
3. File the application. Form, four specimens, business and tax documents, the fee receipt, and a power of attorney if an agent acts.
4. Answer the examination. Sec. 18 has the Department inquire and give the applicant a chance to be heard.
5. Watch the Bulletin. Sec. 21A publishes the mark and starts the opposition period, described in trademark practice as 90 days.
6. Deal with any objection. An objector files with evidence and a fee; our opposition service handles both sides of that.
7. Collect the registration certificate and diarise it. A trademark runs 7 years from registration and is renewable in seven-year steps; a patent runs 7 years and a design 5 years, each renewable twice at most.

How long does it take?

For a trademark, our own reading of the register suggests filing to Bulletin publication often takes somewhere between fifteen and eighteen months, with a wide spread around that.

Treat any single number as a typical case rather than a promise. Examination queries, document corrections, publication scheduling and an objection all move the date.

We deliberately do not extend that figure to patents or designs. The evidence behind it is trademark evidence, and stretching it to the other two rights would be guesswork.

Does the Department decide who owns a name first?

It decides who applied first. Nepal runs on a first-to-file basis in practice, so the earliest valid application generally beats a longer history of informal use.

That is a real risk for a business that has traded under a name for years without filing. Someone who has never sold a thing can reach the counter first.

The Department will hear an objection once the mark is published, but arguing it is slower and more expensive than filing early would have been.

Where are patents published?

Not in the Bulletin. Sec. 7A says a registered patent is published in the Nepal Gazette, and the word "bulletin" does not appear anywhere in the Act.

Designs and trademarks are the ones published under Sec. 21A, and it is trademark publication that fills the Industrial Property Bulletin issue by issue.

So if you are hunting for a Nepali patent, the Gazette is the place, not our owner search, which reads published marks. A patent filing follows an entirely separate publication route.

Does the Department decide disputes?

It decides a good deal. The Act gives it power to inquire into complaints under Sec. 21A, to cancel a registration under Sec. 18(3) after a chance to show cause, and to impose penalties under Sec. 19. Note that the Act prints 35 days for a complaint while trademark practice works to 90; ask an advocate which governs your file.

Sec. 27 then provides an appeal against a departmental order, within 35 days, to the court named in the Act as amended.

The wording there is dated, because the 1991 Justice Administration Act changed the forum and the 2015 Constitution reorganised the courts again. Ask an advocate where an appeal goes today before you rely on the printed text.

Do treaties change which office you use?

Not here. Nepal is a party to the Paris Convention, but it is outside the systems that would let you reach Nepal from abroad in one filing.

It is not in the Madrid System for trademarks, the Patent Cooperation Treaty for patents, or the Hague Agreement for designs. WIPO publishes the party lists for each if you want to check the current position.

The practical effect is simple. Whatever you hold elsewhere, a Nepali right starts with an application at this department, filed here.

Common mistakes

• Looking for a "Department of Intellectual Property". It does not exist; go to the Department of Industry.
• Taking a copyright question there. Creative works belong to the Copyright Registrar's Office.
• Treating company-name approval as brand protection. Two registers, no shared check.
• Expecting an online status page. There is no public tracker for a pending application.
• Filing one application for a whole business. Sec. 18A(2) wants one per category.
• Using the ® symbol before the certificate. Sec. 18B forbids presenting a mark as registered when it is not.
• Assuming a foreign registration reaches Nepal. Sec. 21B says it does not.

What does a first visit look like?

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

It needs two trademark applications at the Department of Industry, because packaged food and café service are different categories. Its company name is already at the Company Registrar and does nothing for either.

The recipe photographs on its website are copyright, which is a different office again, and the jar's shape could be a design — same building, same section, different form. One business, three registers, and only two of the three doors are ours.

In short

Nepal's intellectual property work is split across three offices and there is no single department that owns it. Industrial property is one section of the Department of Industry in Tripureshwor, copyright is elsewhere, and company names are elsewhere again.

Start from what you are protecting, take the Department's own checklist rather than a summary of it, and read the statute at the Nepal Law Commission if a section matters to your case. Our FAQ page covers the rest.

People also search for

• The Department of Industry's role in IP registration
• The Department of Industry trademark manual explained
• Researching the DoI Gazette archive
• How to register a trademark in Nepal
• Where to register an industrial design in Nepal

Not sure which of the three offices your problem belongs to? Describe what you are protecting and we will point you at the right one — contact IP Sewa.