Trademark Class 14 in Nepal — Jewellery & Watches (What It Covers & How to File)

Class 14 is the jewellery and watches class. WIPO's current heading reads: precious metals and their alloys; jewellery, precious and semi-precious stones; horological and chronometric instruments. Nepal applies that list, one application per class, at the Department of Industry.

Key takeaways

• The official heading has three limbs: precious metals, jewellery and stones, and horological instruments.
• Imitation jewellery is Class 14, which surprises people who expect costume pieces to sit elsewhere.
• Smartwatches are Class 9, because they are judged on function rather than on the strap.
• Our index holds 587 published Class 14 entries, an IP Sewa count, against 10,728 in Class 30.
• A precious-metal object classified by its own function leaves the class: gold cutlery is Class 8.
• Sec. 18A(2) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 requires one application per category.
• Sec. 18D gives seven years, and the renewal term under Sec. 23B is repeatable for a mark.

What is the official WIPO heading for Class 14?

Word for word, from the current edition WIPO publishes: precious metals and their alloys; jewellery, precious and semi-precious stones; horological and chronometric instruments.

"Horological and chronometric" simply means clocks and watches and the instruments that measure time. It is old language, and it is why searching for "watch class" rarely lands on the heading itself.

Nepal uses that classification under its own power. Sec. 18A(1) lets the government classify goods and services by a notification in the Nepal Gazette, which is how the NICE Classification arrives here.

What does the explanatory note add?

It narrows the heading in a useful way. WIPO says the class covers mainly precious metals and certain goods made of them or coated with them, as well as jewellery, clocks and watches and their component parts.

Those three words, component parts therefor, carry a lot. Clasps and beads for jewellery, watch movements, clock hands, watch springs and watch crystals are all Class 14 in their own right.

The note also admits a residual group: certain goods of precious metal not otherwise classified by function, such as statues, busts and works of art of precious metal.

Which goods does Class 14 actually name?

The published list is long and oddly specific, which is exactly what makes it useful when you are drafting a specification.

It names jewellery charms, jewellery boxes, jewellery findings, beads for making jewellery, cloisonné jewellery, ivory jewellery, hat jewellery and even jewellery for pets.

On the horology side it names chronographs, chronometers, chronometric instruments, clock cases, dials, clockworks, atomic clocks and chess clocks. Borrow this wording rather than inventing your own.

How busy is Class 14 in Nepal's published record?

Modest. Across the 122 Industrial Property Bulletin issues we index, Class 14 carries 587 published entries, with filings running from 2004 to 2026.

Put that beside Class 30, the coffee and spices class, which holds 10,728. Nepal's register is dominated by packaged food, not by the gold trade.

These are IP Sewa counts of published bulletin entries and not official Department of Industry statistics, and they show no registration status. Browse the class yourself with marks by class.

Is costume jewellery Class 14 or somewhere else?

Class 14. WIPO's note says the class includes jewellery including imitation jewellery, and gives paste jewellery as the example.

The material does not decide it. A brass-and-glass necklace sold as jewellery is classified the same way a gold one is, because the product is jewellery either way.

What does leave is decoration that is not jewellery. Hair ornaments, buttons, buckles and charms for things other than jewellery, key rings or key chains are Class 26 haberdashery.

Where do smartwatches go?

Class 9, and WIPO says so explicitly in Class 14's own exclusion list. The word "watch" in the name is not what classifies the product.

A smartwatch is judged on what it does, and what it does is compute, connect and display. That places it with the electronics, alongside software and apps.

A brand selling both mechanical watches and smart devices therefore needs two applications. Our guide to Class 9 electronics and software covers the other half.

What else leaves Class 14 despite being made of gold?

A great deal, and this is the single most useful thing on the WIPO page. A precious-metal object classified by its own function or purpose goes to the class for that function.

Check anything borderline before you draft, using the NICE class finder, and read our note on choosing the right class if the range spans several.

Does Class 14 cover a jewellery shop?

No. Class 14 is a goods class, and running a showroom is a service. Retail and wholesale of other people's goods sits in Class 35.

That matters in Nepal, where many jewellery businesses both manufacture and sell. A maker who also runs a named showroom is looking at two applications, not one.

The goods and services distinction trips up more filings than any classification subtlety. Our guide to goods against services works through it.

How should a Nepali jeweller word the specification?

List what you actually sell, in wording the register already recognises. "Gold jewellery, silver jewellery, precious stones" is a better specification than the whole heading copied out.

Where a traditional piece has no published English term, describe it by its type rather than only by its local name. A published indication such as "necklaces [jewellery]" carries the local piece perfectly well.

Keep the local name for the mark itself. The brand can be entirely Nepali while the goods description borrows language the examiner already reads.

How do you file a Class 14 trademark in Nepal?

At the Department of Industry, one class at a time, and before the signage goes up rather than after.

1. Decide what you are protecting. The name, the logo, or both, and keep it consistent across the range.
2. Clear it first. Run the name through the conflict checker and look at similar spellings too.
3. Check who else is filing. The owner search shows what a competing house has already published.
4. Write the goods list. Use the published indications, and include component parts only if you sell them.
5. Count your classes. Sec. 18A(2) allows one category per application, so a maker with a showroom counts two.
6. File the bundle. Sec. 17 asks for the prescribed form and four specimens of the mark.
7. Answer examination. The Department may raise distinctiveness, an earlier mark or the goods wording.

What documents does the filing need?

A Nepali applicant supplies the prescribed application form, four specimens, the permit or certificate for the business, and a company's internal approval where one applies.

Where somebody files on your behalf, the Department's form asks for an अधिकारनामा, a power of attorney, and Sec. 20 makes that representative's acts count as your own.

A foreign applicant files nationally through a representative, because Sec. 21B says a mark registered abroad is not valid here until it is registered here as well.

What happens after the Department accepts the mark?

It is published. Sec. 21A has registered designs and trade marks published for the information of the public, which is the point at which a rival gets to object.

Practice allows a 90-day opposition period for a trade mark, while the bare text of Sec. 21A says 35 days from publication, so put that difference to an advocate rather than picking one.

If nothing succeeds, the registration certificate follows, and Sec. 16 ties title to registration rather than to how long the shop has been open. Read the issues through the published trademark search.

How long does a Class 14 registration last?

Seven years from registration under Sec. 18D. The clock starts when the mark is registered, not on the day you filed, which catches a lot of owners out.

The renewal term under Sec. 23B may then be repeated for a trade mark. Renewal is due within 35 days of expiry, with a late window of six months on payment of a fine, after which the registration is cancelled automatically.

Diary it properly. Our renewal service tracks the dates so a mark that has been in the family for decades does not lapse quietly.

Does the mark protect the design of the ring?

No. A trade mark protects the badge on the box, not the shape of the piece inside it. Those are different rights with different tests.

The appearance of a product is the territory of industrial design, and it has its own filing, its own term and its own novelty requirement.

If the ring itself is the asset, look at industrial design as well as the mark, and read what can be trademarked for the limits of the trade mark route.

Common mistakes

• Filing only the goods class. A named showroom is a Class 35 service.
• Putting smartwatches in 14. WIPO lists them as an exclusion.
• Assuming gold means Class 14. Gold cutlery is Class 8, gold teapots are Class 21.
• Reciting the whole heading. List the pieces you actually make and sell.
• Leaving imitation lines out. They are Class 14 too, so name them.
• Waiting until the shop opens. Nepal is first-to-file, and signage is public.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Patan family workshop trading as a single name makes gold ornaments, sells imported quartz watches and runs a showroom.

The ornaments and the watches share one Class 14 application, because both sit inside the heading and one specification can cover them.

The showroom is a separate Class 35 application, and a smart fitness band added later would be a third, in Class 9.

Three applications for one name looks expensive until the alternative is priced: a competitor registering the same name for the retail service the workshop never filed.

What can a class number not settle?

Whether the name is distinctive, whether somebody already holds it, and whether the mark survives an opposition. The class only describes the goods.

Two marks in one class can be commercially far apart, and a strong mark in a neighbouring class can still block you, so read the goods wording rather than the number.

For a considered view before anything is engraved, our clearance service weighs the name, the goods and the similarity together, and the NICE Classification guide covers the system as a whole.

In short

Class 14 is precious metals, jewellery, stones and timepieces, together with their component parts. Imitation jewellery is in; smartwatches, gold cutlery and retail services are out.

It is a small class in Nepal, 587 published entries against Class 30's 10,728, so the difficulty here is rarely a crowded shelf. It is drawing the boundary correctly.

The classification is published by WIPO, the Act by the Nepal Law Commission, and every application is decided by the Department of Industry. The wider framework is covered in intellectual property law in Nepal.

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Send us the full range, from the ornaments to the showroom sign, and we will say how many classes it needs. Start with trademark registration, or put the name to us through contact before the signage is ordered.