Nepal's most-filed trademark registration class is Class 30, coffee, tea, rice, flour, snacks and spices, with 10,759 of 71,837 published entries in IP Sewa's index, about one in seven. Alcoholic drinks (Class 33) and cosmetics (Class 3) follow. These are published Bulletin entries, not registrations.
Key takeaways
- Class 30 leads with 15% of all published entries, almost twice Class 33 in second place.
- The top 10 classes hold 64% of entries, and goods outnumber services 83% to 17%.
- Since 2023, cosmetics (Class 3) has risen to second place and tobacco (Class 34) has fallen out of the top 10.
- Vehicles, medical devices and machinery are mostly foreign-owned; alcohol, building materials and food are mostly Nepali.
- Popularity never decides your class: under the NICE classification, the goods or services you sell do.
Which trademark classes are filed most in Nepal?
Across 123 Industrial Property Bulletin issues, from January 2006 to 16 October 2026, our index holds 71,837 entries with a class. The top ten are below, with the share of each class carrying a Nepali owner address.
| Rank | Class | Main goods or services | Entries | Share | Nepali-owned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | Coffee, tea, rice, flour, snacks, spices | 10,759 | 15.0% | 86% |
| 2 | 33 | Alcoholic drinks except beer | 5,770 | 8.0% | 89% |
| 3 | 3 | Cosmetics, soaps, cleaning products | 5,027 | 7.0% | 68% |
| 4 | 5 | Pharmaceuticals | 4,897 | 6.8% | 39% |
| 5 | 35 | Advertising, retail, business services | 3,815 | 5.3% | 62% |
| 6 | 32 | Beer, soft drinks, water | 3,696 | 5.1% | 78% |
| 7 | 9 | Electronics, software | 3,566 | 5.0% | 24% |
| 8 | 34 | Tobacco and smokers' articles | 2,984 | 4.2% | 72% |
| 9 | 25 | Clothing, footwear, headwear | 2,701 | 3.8% | 64% |
| 10 | 29 | Meat, dairy, edible oils, preserved food | 2,577 | 3.6% | 70% |
These are IP Sewa counts of published Bulletin entries, not official statistics, and they show no registration status. Browse any class with search by NICE class.
What exactly does this ranking count?
Each row is one mark published in one Bulletin for one class. A brand filed in three classes counts three times, and a mark printed in two issues, for example after a correction, can count twice.
Publication is not registration. A published mark can still be opposed or abandoned, and an old registration may have lapsed. Treat the table as filing activity, not a list of marks in force today.
Five entries in our index carry no class at all; the rest are all counted. The source issues are the Industrial Property Bulletins the Department of Industry publishes. Nepal has no official class-by-class ranking, so this is the nearest measured picture available.
Why does food lead the register?
Because Nepal's packaged-food makers file a mark for nearly every product line. Noodles, biscuits, tea, rice, spices and snacks are all Class 30, and each flavour or pack often carries its own name.
Class 30 is also overwhelmingly local: 86% of its entries carry a Nepali owner address. Our Class 30 guide covers what fits there and what moves to Classes 29 and 31.
Why are alcohol and cosmetics so high?
Both are brand-heavy categories with many local producers. Our Class 33 guide covers the drinks side.
Class 33, spirits and wine, is 89% Nepali-owned, the most local of the big classes, as distilleries file separate names for each blend and flavour.
Class 3 combines soaps, detergents and cosmetics. It is the fastest riser in the top ten: 1,499 entries from 2006 to 2015, then 2,088 since 2023 alone.
Who files most in the busiest classes?
Large food groups with long product ranges. Grouping name spellings so one owner counts once, Asian Thai Foods Limited holds 257 Class 30 entries, Kwality Thai Foods Pvt. Ltd. 186 and Asian Biscuit and Confectionery Limited 160. Class 30 has 3,599 owners in all.
In Class 33, Himalayan Distillery Limited leads with 136, ahead of Avanish Distillery Pvt. Ltd. with 116 and Bardiya Distillery Pvt. Ltd. with 106. In Class 3, ITC Limited holds 165, many of them for incense sticks, which WIPO places in Class 3.
These owners file one mark per flavour, pack or blend, which is why a few companies can shape a whole class. Check them with the owner search before you settle on a name.
Which classes have fallen back?
Tobacco is the clearest case. Class 34 was fourth from 2006 to 2015 with 1,610 entries, but has only 683 since 2023, below tenth place. Class 43 restaurants and hotels has entered the recent top ten instead, with 753.
The recent period is busy overall: 26,528 entries were published from 2023 onwards, against 22,000 in the ten years from 2006 to 2015.
Which classes are mostly foreign-owned?
Technical and imported goods. Only 8% of Class 12 vehicle entries carry a Nepali owner address, 13% of Class 10 medical devices and 22% of Class 7 machinery. Class 9 electronics is 24% Nepali and Class 5 pharmaceuticals 39%.
At the other end, Class 33 alcohol is 89% Nepali and Class 19 building materials 87%. Across all classes, about 60% of entries are Nepali-owned. A foreign-led class means your search must cover international brands, not just local ones.
Which classes are filed least?
Class 13, firearms and fireworks, has just 16 entries, and Class 15, musical instruments, 57. Class 26 haberdashery has 100, Class 23 yarns 116, Class 22 ropes and tents 125, and Class 40 treatment of materials 137.
A quiet class is not a free one. Fewer local filings mean fewer obvious conflicts, but a foreign owner in a neighbouring class can still block a close name.
Do services get filed less than goods?
Much less. Goods Classes 1 to 34 hold 59,635 entries, 83% of the total; the eleven service classes hold 12,202. Class 35 leads the services with 3,815, followed by Class 43 restaurants and hotels with 1,553 and Class 41 education with 1,503.
Many service businesses still trade without a registered mark, which leaves their names open to whoever files first.
What does Class 35 really cover?
Advertising, business management and retail or wholesale services. It is not a catch-all business class, and it does not protect the products a shop sells under its own brand.
A clothing shop with its own label files Class 35 for the shop and Class 25 for the clothes. Our Class 35 guide sets out the boundary.
When do Classes 9 and 42 both matter?
When a business ships software and also runs it as a service. A downloadable app is Class 9 goods; hosted software and development work are Class 42 services.
Both classes lean foreign: only 24% of Class 9 entries carry a Nepali owner address, so a local tech brand is often searching against international names.
Does a crowded class make registration harder?
Not by itself. The Department of Industry examines each mark on its own, under Sec. 18 of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965, published by the Nepal Law Commission. What a busy class does is raise the odds that a similar name is already there.
In Class 30, with over ten thousand entries, 61 published names already contain "Himalaya" and 14 contain "Everest". Choose a distinctive name and search wider before you print packaging.
How do you choose the right class?
Start from what you actually sell, not from what is popular. Use WIPO's Nice Classification, the NICE class finder and the goods and services search to place each product or service.
Nepal requires a separate application for each class under Sec. 18A, so a café selling packaged coffee needs Class 43 and Class 30. Our class-selection guide covers the common boundaries.
How should you search a busy class?
- List your goods. Write down every product or service the mark will cover.
- Map each to a class. Note neighbouring classes buyers might link.
- Search exact and similar names. Check spelling, sound, meaning and Devanagari forms.
- Check the owners. A big local group in your class files often.
- Read the goods lists. A shared class number is not the same as shared goods.
- Decide and file early. The first-to-file principle generally applies.
The published trademark search and the conflict checker help with steps 3 to 5. A blank result is not proof a name is free, because unpublished filings do not appear.
How does filing work once you pick a class?
You file at the Department of Industry, one application per class, with four specimens of the mark and, if an agent files, a power of attorney. After examination the mark is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and the 90-day opposition window runs from publication.
Once the fee is paid the Department issues the registration certificate. The registration lasts seven years from registration and is renewable, seven years at a time. Our trademark registration service handles each stage.
Common mistakes
- Picking the popular class. The goods decide the class, not the crowd.
- Treating published counts as registrations. Many entries were never registered or have lapsed.
- Assuming a quiet class is safe. A neighbouring class can still block a close name.
- Filing Class 35 for your own products. Retail service and the goods sold are separate.
- Using a generic word in Class 30. It will have many neighbours.
What does a two-class plan look like?
This is an illustration, not a real case. "Kanchan Bites", a Butwal snack maker, sells packaged namkeen and plans a café under the same name.
The snacks are Class 30, the busiest class in Nepal, so it searches widely and drops its first choice, which had several close neighbours. The café is Class 43, a quieter class, filed as a second application at the same time.
Filing both before launch avoids owning the snacks but not the café that sells them.
In short
Class 30 food staples lead Nepal's published trademarks with 15%, followed by alcohol, cosmetics and medicine; the top ten classes hold almost two thirds. Cosmetics is rising fast, and tobacco has fallen back.
Use the ranking to judge how hard you need to search, never to choose a class. For a written view of your class and its conflicts, our trademark search service weighs the risks.
People also search for
- What is NICE classification?
- Nepal trademark statistics 2026
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Not sure which classes your brand needs? Contact IP Sewa and we will map your products to the right ones.
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