Yes. Nepal has been bound by the Paris Convention since 22 June 2001, and Sec. 21C of its 1965 Act tells the Department of Industry to give registration holders the Convention's benefit. A priority claim must reach Nepal within six months for a mark, twelve for a patent.
Key takeaways
- Nepal acceded to the Stockholm Act of the Paris Convention, depositing on 22 March 2001, in force 22 June 2001.
- The priority window is six months for trademarks and industrial designs and twelve months for patents.
- Sec. 21C is the Act's only mention of the Convention, and it arrived with the 2006 amendment.
- Priority moves your date. It never removes the need for a Nepali application of your own.
- Nepal is outside the Madrid System, the PCT and the Hague system, so every filing here is national.
- The register works on a first-to-file basis, which is exactly what an earlier date protects you from.
- Sec. 18D gives a mark seven years, and the renewal term under Sec. 23B may be repeated.
Can a Paris Convention priority claim be made in Nepal?
Yes, and the hook sits in the statute. Sec. 21C closes with the words that the Department "shall provide the facility of pursuant to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 1883 to the registration holder".
The Department of Industry's own trademark application form points the same way. Clause 10 of the form accepts that a mark may have to be cancelled where it is one that must be protected under the Paris Convention.
So the answer to the question people actually type is short. Priority is available here, it is claimed inside an ordinary national filing, and the burden of proving the earlier date sits with you.
When did Nepal join the Paris Convention?
Nepal acceded to the Stockholm Act of 1967 of the Convention. The instrument was deposited on 22 March 2001 and membership took effect on 22 June 2001, the usual three-month gap.
The word acceded matters more than it looks. Nepal did not sign the treaty and ratify it later, which is why you will not find a Nepali signature date anywhere in WIPO's records.
That same record shows three treaties in force for Nepal and a fourth only signed. There is no entry for the Madrid, Hague or PCT systems, which is the single most consequential fact for anyone filing from abroad.
Where does the Act actually mention the Convention?
In one place. Sec. 21C of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 carries the Convention sentence, and nothing else in the statute names any treaty at all.
The sentence was inserted by the 2006 amendment, five years after Nepal was already bound. For those five years the obligation existed in international law with no domestic text behind it.
Sec. 21C has a second limb worth knowing. The Department may register a patent, design or trade mark already registered abroad without conducting enquiries, where the foreign registration certificate is enclosed with the application.
How long is the priority window?
The Convention sets the periods, not Nepal's Act. Article 4C(1) gives twelve months for patents and utility models and six months for industrial designs and trade marks.
Both run from the filing date of the first application, not from its acceptance, registration or publication. A home office that takes a year to examine is irrelevant to your deadline.
Because the Act itself is silent on the periods, confirm with the Department of Industry or your Nepali representative how the claim should be presented on the day you file.
| Right | Priority window | Nepal term after registration | Opposition window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade mark | 6 months | 7 years under Sec. 18D. | 90 days in practice |
| Industrial design | 6 months | 5 years | 35 days under Sec. 21A. |
| Patent | 12 months | 7 years | 35 days |
| Utility model | 12 months | No separate category in Nepal | Not applicable |
What does the priority date actually do for you?
It backdates your place in the queue. Anything filed by somebody else between your first filing and your Nepali filing is treated as having arrived after you, not before.
That is worth real money in a first-to-file country. A local distributor who watches your launch abroad and files your name here has a weaker position if your claim is good.
It does not make your mark distinctive, and it does not settle a dispute with somebody who filed before your original application. Priority reorders a queue; it does not invent a right.
How do you claim priority on a filing into Nepal?
Through an ordinary national application at the Department of Industry, made inside the window and supported by the earlier paperwork. The order below is the one that causes the fewest surprises.
- Write down the true first filing date. Use the earliest qualifying application anywhere, not the one you happen to remember.
- Clear the name in Nepal first. Run it through the conflict checker before anybody books a deadline.
- Appoint a Nepali representative. A foreign applicant acts through an agent, and Sec. 20 says an attorney's acts count as the applicant's own.
- Choose the class or classes. Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each category, so count them with the NICE class finder.
- Obtain a certified copy of the first filing. Ask the home office early, because certification is rarely same-day work.
- File inside the window and say so on the form. A claim that is not stated is not a claim.
- Answer examination. The Department still tests the mark on its own merits, and a priority date excuses nothing.
What documents support the claim?
The centre of the bundle is a certified copy of the earlier application, showing its number, its date, its owner and what it covered. Everything else supports that.
Names must match across every page. Where the business has been renamed, merged or reorganised since the first filing, show the chain of title rather than leaving an examiner to guess.
Nepal's own application form asks for four specimens of the mark and, where a representative is nominated, an अधिकारनामा, which is the power of attorney. Our note on the trademark application form walks through the rest of it.
What happens if you miss the window?
You can still file. What you lose is the earlier date, so the application is examined on the day it actually arrives in Kathmandu.
In a quiet class that costs nothing at all. In a crowded one it can cost the mark, because anything filed in the gap now sits ahead of you rather than behind.
There is no mechanism in the Act for restoring a lapsed priority period, so treat the date as hard. If it has already passed, search the register carefully before filing anything.
Can a Nepali business claim priority abroad?
Yes, and this is the half that gets forgotten. A Nepali applicant who files here first may claim that date in any other member country, inside the same six or twelve months.
It is the practical route for an exporter, because Nepal's absence from the Madrid System means there is no single international filing to make instead.
Plan the countries before the Nepali filing rather than after. Six months disappears quickly once translation, local agents and certified copies are added together.
Does priority replace filing in Nepal?
No, and Sec. 21B says so bluntly. Title to a patent, design or trade mark registered in a foreign country is not valid in Nepal unless it is registered in Nepal by the person concerned.
That single sentence answers most of the questions foreign owners ask us. A famous mark abroad is an unregistered mark here until somebody files it.
The Nepali register is the only place your title exists, and our trademark registration service exists for exactly that step.
What does the Paris Convention not give you?
It gives no international registration. There is no central filing, no single fee and no one certificate that covers several countries at once.
It also does not harmonise substance. Distinctiveness, examination standards, opposition and cancellation are all decided by Nepali law, whatever your home office concluded.
And it is not the wider trade framework. That is a separate agreement, covered in our guide to how TRIPS globalised IP.
Does a priority claim change the class rules?
Not at all. One overseas application covering nine classes still becomes nine Nepali applications, because Sec. 18A(2) allows one category per application.
Copy the foreign specification only where it matches what you will actually sell here. A wide list drafted for another market invites objections in this one.
Check the shelf before committing, class by class, using marks by class and the NICE Classification guide.
What happens after the Nepali application is filed?
Examination, then publication, then the opposition window, then the certificate. A priority claim changes none of that sequence and shortens none of it.
Trade marks are published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and practice allows a 90-day opposition period. The bare text of Sec. 21A says 35 days from publication, so put that gap to an advocate rather than relying on either figure alone.
You can read the issues yourself through the published trademark search, and our guide to the Bulletin explains how to read one.
Common mistakes
- Waiting for the home certificate. The window runs from the filing date and will close first.
- Claiming from the wrong application. It is the earliest qualifying filing that counts, not the most convenient.
- Letting the applicant name drift. A restructure between filings needs documented title, not an explanation.
- Assuming Madrid reaches Nepal. It does not, and neither does the PCT or the Hague system.
- Filing one Nepali application for nine classes. Sec. 18A(2) does not allow it.
- Treating priority as a decision. The Department still examines the mark exactly as it would any other.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Singapore snack company files its name at home on 1 March for packaged foods and for café services.
Its Nepali window closes on 1 September. Two applications are needed here, one for the goods and one for the services, each claiming the March date.
In July a Kathmandu importer files the same name for packaged foods. If the Singapore filings land in August with a good claim, the importer's application is the later one.
Had the company waited until October, the order would reverse, and the argument would move from paperwork to an expensive dispute about who used the name first.
What should you check before relying on a priority date?
Three things, in this order. Whether the earlier filing is genuinely the first, whether the certified copy can be obtained in time, and whether the Nepali register is already occupied.
The third one decides whether the claim is worth making at all. A priority date over a conflict that predates your first filing changes nothing.
Search the owner side as well as the name, using the owner search, and get a considered view through our clearance service before deadlines are booked.
In short
Paris priority can be claimed in Nepal. The window is six months for a trade mark or a design and twelve for a patent, counted from the first filing.
The claim buys a date and national treatment. It buys no international registration, no easier examination and no substitute for the Nepali application that Sec. 21B insists on.
The treaty text is published by WIPO, the Act by the Nepal Law Commission, and every application here is decided by the Department of Industry. Our companion piece on the Paris Convention and national treatment covers the treaty itself in more depth.
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Send us the first filing date and the countries you care about, and we will say what is still claimable and what has closed. Start with patent registration if the right is an invention, or put the deadline to us through contact today.
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