The Patent Registration Timeline in Nepal, Visualised

Nepal's Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 fixes exactly one period in the whole patent chapter: 35 days. There is no examination deadline, no publication deadline and no clock running from your filing date. Here is the sequence the Act actually sets, stage by stage.

Key takeaways

• The Department of Industry registers patents under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965.
• Section 5 asks two questions only: is it a new invention, and is it useful to the general public?
• Section 7A(1) publishes registered patents in the Nepal Gazette, not the Industrial Property Bulletin.
• The 35-day objection under Section 7A(3) runs from seeing or copying the patent, not from the notice.
• A patent runs seven years from registration and may be renewed twice, so 21 years is the ceiling.
• Nepal is not a PCT State, so there is no international filing route and no 18-month publication here.
• The Act sets no deadline for the Department at any stage, which is why no honest month figure exists.

What does the Act actually fix in the timeline?

Very little, honestly. We searched the English text: the only period stated anywhere in the patent chapter is the 35 days in Sec. 7A(3).

Renewal adds one more in Sec. 23B, and appeal a third in Sec. 27. Neither is part of getting the patent granted.

So a Nepali patent timeline is a sequence of stages, not a calendar. Anyone quoting a fixed number of months is describing experience, not the statute.

What are the stages the Act sets out?

Six, running from the application to the objection window. The order is the part most guides get wrong.

1. File under Sec. 4. The application carries the particulars, the process of manufacturing or using the invention, and the theory or formula behind it, with maps and drawings.
2. Investigation under Sec. 5. The Department may take expert advice, then decides whether the invention is new and useful to the public.
3. The bars in Sec. 6. If one of four listed grounds applies, registration is refused and the applicant notified.
4. Registration under Sec. 7. Once the investigation is complete, the Department issues the registration certificate.
5. Publication under Sec. 7A(1). A registered patent goes in the Nepal Gazette, unless it must be kept secret in the national interest.
6. Objection under Sec. 7A(3). Anyone with an objection may complain to the Department within 35 days of seeing or copying the patent.

What does the Department check at Sec. 5?

Two things. The Department, on expert advice if needed, decides whether the invention is a new invention and whether it is useful to the general public.

That is the whole statutory test. The words inventive, obvious, prior art and novelty appear nowhere in the Act, which we verified by searching the published English text.

Expect an inventive-step argument in practice, but do not assume the Act imposes one. For what qualifies, read what can be patented in Nepal.

What can stop a registration outright?

Sec. 6(1) lists four grounds, and only one of them is about the invention itself being unpatentable.

The patent is already registered to someone else. The applicant is not the inventor and has not acquired the rights. The invention would adversely affect public health, conduct, morality or the national interest. Registration would contravene existing law.

The second ground deserves attention. Ownership paperwork between an employer, a contractor and a named inventor is a real refusal risk, not a formality.

When is a patent published, and where?

After registration, in the Nepal Gazette. Sec. 7A(1) says patents registered under the Act, other than those kept secret in the national interest, shall be published by the Department there.

The word "Bulletin" does not appear in the Act at all. The Industrial Property Bulletin carries trade marks and designs, and all 122 issues we index are trademark issues.

The national-interest carve-out is a real stage almost no guide mentions. A patent inside it is registered and simply never appears in the Gazette.

Why does that order surprise people?

Because most patent systems publish an application before granting it, and much advice about Nepal copies that template without checking the text.

On the Act's wording there is no pre-grant publication. Some practitioner notes describe publication after acceptance and before registration, which Sec. 7 and Sec. 7A do not support.

We will not guess which is followed at the counter. Put that to the Department of Industry or a Nepali advocate before relying on either version.

How does the 35-day objection window really run?

Not from the Gazette notice. Sec. 7A(2) lets someone who wants to see or copy the particulars, maps or drawings do so after paying the prescribed fee.

Sec. 7A(3) then gives that person 35 days from the date of seeing or copying the patent to complain. The clock is personal to whoever inspected the file.

So the window has no single closing date. A competitor inspecting the file months later starts their own 35 days that day.

How is that different from a trade mark or design?

Sec. 21A handles designs and trade marks, and it counts differently: an objection to published particulars goes to the Department within 35 days from the date of such publication.

Practice for trade marks allows 90 days from Bulletin publication, which is the figure the trade works to. Treat the shorter statutory figure as the safe one if a deadline is close.

If the value is in how a product looks rather than how it works, compare the routes in our guide to design against patent, or go straight to design registration.

Is there any deadline the Department must meet?

None that we can find. Sec. 5 does not say how long the investigation may take, and Sec. 7 does not say how quickly the certificate must follow.

That is not unusual for a 1965 statute, but planning cannot rest on the law. It rests on what the office is doing when you file.

The consolidated text is published by the Nepal Law Commission, and reading Sec. 4 to Sec. 8 takes ten minutes.

So how long does it take in practice?

We are not going to publish a month figure, because we cannot source one. The number you often see, 12 to 14 months with 6 to 8 in the best case, is a trade mark figure and does not transfer to patents.

Patent volumes here are small, examination may involve outside experts, and nothing paces the office. Together those make an average close to meaningless.

Ask the Department, or an advocate who has taken a patent through recently. Our patent filing team can say what current matters are doing rather than what a template says.

What about the 18-month publication rule?

It does not apply here. That rule belongs to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and WIPO's depositary table listed 159 PCT States when we read it, with a status date of 19 May 2026. Nepal was not among them.

So a Nepali applicant cannot file an international application at all, and there is no receiving office here. Every foreign filing is a separate national one.

Paris Convention priority is the tool that does work, and our guide to filing abroad from Nepal explains the twelve-month window for patents.

How long does a Nepali patent last?

Sec. 8(1) gives the patentee seven years from the date of registration under Sec. 7, and Sec. 23B allows renewal not more than twice for seven years at a time.

The renewal term is capped for patents but not for marks: the same section renews a trade mark any number of times, and a design twice for five years.

Our guide to patent renewal in Nepal covers the mechanics, and reading your certificate shows where the registration date sits on it.

What happens if you miss the renewal?

Sec. 23B gives a late window of six months, on payment of a fine set by the Act. Miss that too and the same section cancels the registration automatically, with no decision and no notice needed first.

"Automatically" is the important word here, because nothing has to be decided against you before the right disappears.

Diarise the registration date rather than the filing date, because Sec. 8 counts the seven years from the day the patent was registered.

What if the Department refuses?

Sec. 5(2) requires the Department to notify the applicant that the patent cannot be registered, and Sec. 27 allows an appeal to the Appellate Court within 35 days of an order.

That is the third appearance of the same 35-day period in this Act, which makes it the drafters' standard interval rather than a considered patent deadline.

Under Sec. 6(2) the Department may also cancel a patent it has already registered, but only after giving the patentee a reasonable opportunity to show cause.

Who can file, and with what?

Sec. 3(1) requires anyone wanting rights over a patent to register it in their own name, and Sec. 20 lets them appoint an attorney or legal practitioner to act.

A foreign applicant works through a Nepal-based representative appointed by power of attorney. Sec. 21B is blunt about why: a patent registered abroad has no force in Nepal unless registered here.

Nepal is first-to-file in practice, so file before you demonstrate, pitch or publish. Patent searching in Nepal sets out what a prior search can realistically find.

Common mistakes

• Applying a trade mark timeline to a patent. The 12 to 14 month figure is not a patent figure.
• Looking for the patent in the Bulletin. Section 7A(1) sends it to the Nepal Gazette instead.
• Counting the 35 days from the notice. Section 7A(3) counts them from inspection.
• Counting the term from filing. Section 8 runs seven years from registration.
• Assuming a third renewal exists. Section 23B caps a patent at two, unlike a trade mark.
• Disclosing before filing. Section 5 asks whether the invention is new, and a public demonstration is an answer.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Butwal workshop develops a grain dryer with a new heat-channel arrangement and wants to sell it across the Terai.

It files under Sec. 4 with drawings and a description of the arrangement, before the agriculture expo rather than after. The filing date is what its position rests on.

Months later the certificate issues and the Gazette notice appears, and the workshop assumes the risk has closed. It has not: a rival who pays to inspect the file next year starts a fresh 35 days.

So diarise the registration date, keep the ownership paperwork tidy, and watch for an objection rather than assume a closing date. The free IP Sewa tools cover the brand side of the same launch.

What can this article not tell you?

How many months your own application will take, whether the office publishes before or after registration in current practice, and whether your invention clears Sec. 5.

Those are questions for the Department or a Nepali advocate, on your facts. This is general information about the statute, not legal advice, and our IP glossary defines the terms used here.

In short

Nepal's patent chapter is short on clocks. File under Sec. 4, survive the Sec. 5 investigation and the Sec. 6 bars, take the certificate under Sec. 7, and only then does the Gazette notice appear.

The one deadline that binds anyone is 35 days, and it runs from inspection rather than publication. Everything else is administrative pace, which is why a trustworthy month figure does not exist.

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Launching a product means two jobs: search published marks for the name, and file for the invention. Send the technical description and your launch date through contact and we will set out the next step.