Trademark Class 3 in Nepal — Cosmetics & Cleaning (What It Covers & How to File)

Class 3 is the non-medicated class. Cosmetics, perfume, soap, laundry powder, floor polish and sandpaper all sit in it, which sounds odd until you read the heading. One word decides almost every hard case: medicated.

Key takeaways

• The heading uses non-medicated twice, and that word settles most Class 3 arguments.
• Our index holds 5,005 published Class 3 entries across 2,366 applicants, an IP Sewa count.
• The class these owners most often also hold is Class 5, which is exactly the boundary they cross.
• Incense, henna and herbal cosmetic extracts are published Class 3 indications.
• Essential oils split by purpose: cosmetic or fragrancing is Class 3, manufacturing ingredient is Class 1.
• Sandpaper and polishing wax are Class 3, because the heading ends with abrasive preparations.
• Sec. 18A(2) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 requires one application per category.

What does trademark Class 3 cover in Nepal?

The heading WIPO currently publishes reads: non-medicated cosmetics and toiletry preparations; non-medicated dentifrices; perfumes; bleaching preparations and other substances for laundry use; cleaning, polishing and abrasive preparations.

So it is really two shelves in one class. The grooming shelf holds skincare, make-up, shampoo, soap, perfume and toothpaste; the household shelf holds detergent, bleach, polish and abrasives.

The explanatory note puts it plainly: Class 3 is mainly non-medicated toiletry preparations, together with cleaning preparations for the home and other environments.

Why does the heading say "non-medicated" twice?

Because that is where the class ends. The word appears against both cosmetics and dentifrices, and the exclusion list sends medicated shampoos, soaps, lotions and dentifrices to Class 5.

Nothing about the formula decides it on its own. The same herbal cream can be a Class 3 cosmetic or a Class 5 preparation depending on what the label and the specification claim it does.

That makes the wording of the goods list a commercial decision as much as a legal one, and it is the decision this class punishes people for making late.

How big is Class 3 in Nepal's published record?

Across the more than 120 Industrial Property Bulletin issues we index, Class 3 carries 5,005 published entries held by 2,366 applicants, with filings running from 2001 to 2026.

That makes it one of the busiest goods classes in the country, and it is still growing: well over a third of those entries carry a filing date in the last five years.

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

Which class do Class 3 owners most often add?

Class 5, and by a distance. Of the 2,366 Class 3 applicants in our index, 475 hold a mark in some other class, and 234 of those hold Class 5.

The next companions are far behind: Class 35 for retail on 104, Class 21 for applicators and containers on 76, Class 30 on 72 and Class 10 on 71.

That ranking is the class explaining itself. The one line Class 3 owners cross often enough to need a second filing is the medicated line. See what a competitor holds with the owner search.

When does a cosmetic become a Class 5 medicine?

When it is presented as treating something. A moisturiser is Class 3; an eczema cream is Class 5. A whitening toothpaste is Class 3; a fluoride treatment gel sold for gum disease is not.

Nepal's herbal and ayurvedic brands sit right on this line, because the same plant extract can be sold either way. WIPO helps by listing "herbal extracts for cosmetic purposes" squarely in Class 3.

If the range genuinely spans both, file both rather than stretching one. Our notes on Class 5 pharmaceuticals set out what the other side looks like.

Where do essential oils belong?

It depends who buys them, and for a Nepali exporter this is the sharpest trap in the class.

"Essential oils for cosmetic purposes" and "essential oils for fragrancing" are both published Class 3 indications. So is almond oil for cosmetic purposes.

But the exclusion list sends ingredients for use in the manufacture of cosmetics — naming vitamins, preservatives, essential oils and antioxidants — to Class 1. A distillery selling drums to a factory is not in the same class as one selling bottles to shoppers.

Is incense or henna a Class 3 good?

Both, which surprises most people who file them. "Incense" and "agarwood incense" are published Class 3 indications, as is "henna, cosmetic dye".

That matters here because incense and mehndi are real Nepali export lines that founders often try to place in a food or handicraft class, where they do not belong.

Room fragrancing preparations are Class 3 as well. A deodoriser that is not for people or animals, though, is Class 5, so the wording on an air product has to be chosen deliberately.

Why is sandpaper in the cosmetics class?

Because the heading ends "cleaning, polishing and abrasive preparations", and abrasives are exactly that. The published list carries abrasive paper, abrasives, corundum, diamantine, glass cloth and polishing paper.

Polishing wax, furniture and flooring polish, leather preservatives and denture polishes are in the class for the same reason.

A hardware brand may therefore find itself filing in the class it thinks of as cosmetics, which is a good argument for checking the list rather than the name of the class.

Are brushes and cleaning cloths Class 3?

No. Class 3 covers the preparation, never the instrument. Make-up brushes, and cloths, pads and rags for cleaning, are all Class 21.

The abrasive line splits the same way. Abrasive paper is a Class 3 preparation, while emery boards, emery files, sharpening stones and grindstones are hand tools in Class 8.

What else leaves Class 3?

WIPO publishes the exclusions beside the class and names the destination for each. They explain most misfiled cosmetics applications.

Run the whole range against that list before the specification is settled, and test anything it leaves open with the goods and services search.

How should a Nepali brand word its goods?

Name the products, using wording the register already recognises. "Face cream, cleanser, soap, hair oil and body lotion" is stronger than "cosmetics" and far stronger than the heading copied out.

Add "non-medicated" where a product could be read either way. It costs nothing, it matches the heading, and it removes the question an examiner would otherwise ask.

Where the range really is medicated, say so and file the second class. The NICE class finder is a quick first check on anything borderline.

How do you file a Class 3 trademark in Nepal?

At the Department of Industry, one class at a time, and before the first print run of packaging.

1. Clear the name. Run it through the conflict checker, testing sound-alikes as well as spellings.
2. Sort the range. Split it into non-medicated goods, medicated goods, ingredients, tools and services.
3. Write the goods list. Name the products in published wording, and use "non-medicated" where it helps.
4. Count the applications. Sec. 18A(2) allows one category each, so a skincare line with a treatment range counts two.
5. File the bundle. Sec. 17 asks for the prescribed form together with four specimens of the mark.
6. Answer examination. The Department may raise distinctiveness, an earlier mark or the goods wording.
7. Follow it through. Publication and the opposition window come before the registration certificate.

What documents does a Class 3 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 an agent files for you, the Department's form asks for a power of attorney, and Sec. 20 makes that representative's acts count as your own.

An overseas cosmetics house files nationally through a representative, because Sec. 21B says a mark registered abroad is not valid here until it is registered here too.

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 when a competitor may object.

A published trade mark can be opposed within a 90-day opposition period from publication; rely on the deadline the Department of Industry states and act before the last day.

The wait is real. An unopposed trademark in Nepal typically runs about 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate, with 6 to 8 months only at the smoothest end, and our own bulletin records put the median filing-to-publication gap at about 3.5 months, though about one mark in six waits more than two years.

Watch the issues yourself through the published trademark search, which lists published marks rather than registration status.

How long does it last, and how is it renewed?

Seven years under Sec. 18D, running from the date of registration and not from the filing date.

The renewal term under Sec. 23B is repeatable. Renewal falls due within 35 days of expiry, with a six-month late window on payment of a fine, after which the registration is cancelled.

Sec. 18C adds a use requirement: a mark not brought into use within a year of registration can be cancelled after inquiry. Our renewal service keeps the dates.

Common mistakes

• Writing "cosmetics" and stopping. Examiners want the products named.
• Letting a wellness claim into the specification. It can pull the whole range into Class 5.
• Filing bulk oils in Class 3. An ingredient sold to a manufacturer is Class 1.
• Adding the brush to the make-up filing. Applicators are Class 21.
• Assuming incense is a handicraft. It is a published Class 3 good.
• Launching before filing. Nepal is first-to-file, and this class is busy.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Pokhara producer puts one name on a herbal face pack, an anti-fungal foot cream, drums of lemongrass oil sold to a soap factory, and a set of bamboo brushes.

The face pack is Class 3. The anti-fungal cream is Class 5, because it is presented as a treatment.

The bulk oil is Class 1, since it is an ingredient for manufacture, and the brushes are Class 21. One name, four classes, and only the first is the one the founder had in mind.

In short

Class 3 is the non-medicated shelf: what you put on your body and what you clean your house with, plus the polishes and abrasives the heading quietly includes.

It holds 5,005 published entries in our index, and its owners cross into Class 5 more often than into anywhere else. Decide the medical claim before the specification is written, not after.

The classification is published by WIPO, the Act by the Nepal Law Commission, and every application is decided by the Department of Industry. For a considered view before the launch, our clearance service weighs the name and the goods together.

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Send us the full range, from the face cream to the bulk oil, and we will say how many classes it needs and whether the name clears. Begin with trademark registration, or show us the label through contact before the packaging is ordered.