Trademark Class 30 in Nepal — Tea, Coffee, Noodles & Spices (What It Covers & How to File)

Class 30 is the tea, coffee, noodles, spices and bakery class, and it is the busiest class in Nepal's published trademark record by a long way. Getting into it is easy. Drawing its boundaries with Classes 29, 31, 32 and 43 is the real work.

Key takeaways

• Our index holds 10,728 published Class 30 entries, an IP Sewa count and 15% of the whole register.
• The class is foodstuffs of plant origin, prepared for consumption, plus the things that flavour food.
• Coffee, cocoa and tea-based drinks are Class 30, not Class 32, and Class 32's own list says so.
• Raw and unprocessed goes to Class 31; animal-origin food and preserved vegetables go to Class 29.
• Serving the food is Class 43. A café brand that also bags its beans needs both.
• Sec. 18A(2) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 requires one application per category.
• Sec. 18D gives seven years from registration, and the renewal term under Sec. 23B is repeatable.

What does trademark Class 30 cover in Nepal?

The heading WIPO currently publishes is one of the longest in the system. It reads: coffee, tea, cocoa and substitutes therefor; rice, pasta and noodles; tapioca and sago; flour and preparations made from cereals.

It continues: bread, pastries and confectionery; chocolate; ice cream, sorbets and other edible ices; sugar, honey, treacle; yeast, baking-powder.

And it closes with: salt, seasonings, spices, preserved herbs; vinegar, sauces and other condiments; ice. Nepal applies that list, because Sec. 18A(1) lets the government adopt a classification by notification.

Why is Class 30 Nepal's busiest trademark class?

Because it is where the country's packaged-food trade lives. Across the 122 Industrial Property Bulletin issues we index, Class 30 carries 10,728 published entries.

That is roughly 15% of the entire published record, and nearly double the next class, Class 33 on 5,753. Filings run from 2003 to 2026 and have not slowed.

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.

What does the explanatory note actually say?

It gives the organising idea that the heading hides. Class 30 is mainly foodstuffs of plant origin, other than fruits and vegetables, prepared or preserved for consumption.

The second half is just as important: the class also holds the auxiliaries intended to improve the flavour of food. That is where spices, seasonings, sauces and condiments come from.

WIPO then adds items you would not guess. Pizza, pies and sandwiches are Class 30, as are chocolate-coated nuts and cereals prepared for eating such as muesli and corn chips.

Are coffee and tea drinks Class 30 or Class 32?

Class 30, and this catches out almost every drinks brand. WIPO lists "beverages with coffee, cocoa, chocolate or tea base" inside Class 30's own inclusion list.

Class 32 confirms it from the other side. Its exclusion list sends beverages with a coffee, cocoa, chocolate or tea base, and flavourings for beverages, straight to Class 30.

So a bottled iced tea or a ready-to-drink coffee is a Class 30 product. Class 32 is for beer, water, soft drinks and fruit juices, which our NICE Classification guide puts in context.

Where is the line with Class 31?

Processing. Class 31 is raw and unprocessed agricultural produce, and Class 30 begins once the product has been prepared for consumption.

Unprocessed cereals and unprocessed rice are Class 31. Flour, instant rice and cereal-based snack food are Class 30, because something has been done to them.

Tea is the clearest Nepali example. Fresh leaf off the bush is Class 31; the orthodox tea that leaves a factory in a packet is Class 30.

Where is the line with Class 29?

Origin, mostly. Class 29 is food of animal origin, together with fruits and vegetables that have been preserved, frozen, dried or cooked.

So soups and bouillon are Class 29, not Class 30, even though a stock cube feels like a seasoning. Pulses and nuts prepared for eating are Class 29 as well.

Milk decides the drinks question. A milk beverage flavoured with coffee or tea, where the milk predominates, is Class 29, while a coffee-based drink stays in Class 30.

Is achar a Class 30 or a Class 29 product?

It depends what is in the jar, and this is the boundary Nepali food brands hit most often.

A chutney or a condiment is Class 30, and WIPO names both chutneys and chow-chow as condiments in the class list.

A pickle that is essentially preserved vegetables in oil is closer to Class 29, because preserved vegetables sit there. Settle the description before filing, and cover both classes where the range genuinely spans them.

Is a herbal tea Class 30 or Class 5?

Class 30, unless it is medicinal. WIPO lists herbal teas in Class 30 and also lists "flowers or leaves for use as tea substitutes" there.

What leaves is a medicinal tea, together with dietetic food and substances adapted for medical use. Those are Class 5 with the pharmaceuticals.

The wording on your own packaging can decide it. A wellness claim written into the specification can pull the product across the line without anybody intending it.

What leaves Class 30 altogether?

WIPO publishes the exclusions beside the class, and each one names where the product goes instead. They explain most misfiled food applications.

Run the whole range against that list before settling a specification, and use the NICE class finder for anything it does not answer.

Does Class 30 cover a café or a bakery shop?

No. Class 30 is the packet on the shelf. The act of serving food and drink is Class 43, along with temporary accommodation.

That split matters here because so many Nepali food brands do both. A roastery that also runs a café is looking at two applications, not one.

Our note on goods against services works the distinction through, and protecting a coffee or tea brand covers the sector specifically.

How should a Nepali food brand word its goods?

Name what you actually make, using wording the register already recognises. "Orthodox black tea, green tea, herbal teas" beats both "food products" and the whole heading copied out.

Published indications cover a surprising amount of Nepali food. The list names noodles, instant rice, flour-based dumplings, buckwheat flour, ground ginger, cardamom, curry, chutneys, honey and palm sugar.

Keep the local name for the mark and borrow the published phrase for the goods. Check how a phrase has actually been used with the goods and services search.

How do you file a Class 30 trademark in Nepal?

At the Department of Industry, one class at a time, and before the packaging is printed rather than after.

1. Clear the name first. Run it through the conflict checker, and test sound-alikes as well as spellings.
2. Look at who else is filing. The owner search shows what a competing manufacturer has already published.
3. Write the goods list. Name the products you sell, in published wording, not the entire heading.
4. Count the classes. Sec. 18A(2) allows one category per application, so a maker with a café 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 to the certificate. Publication and the opposition window come before the registration certificate.

What documents does a Class 30 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 for you, the Department's form asks for an अधिकारनामा, a power of attorney, and Sec. 20 makes that representative's acts count as yours.

A foreign food company 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 when a rival gets the chance 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 choosing one.

In a class this crowded, expect the scrutiny. Read the issues yourself through the published trademark search.

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 date you filed. That distinction is worth more than it looks.

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

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

Common mistakes

• Filing bottled iced tea in Class 32. Tea-based drinks are Class 30.
• Writing "food products". Examiners want the actual goods named.
• Forgetting the café. Serving the same food is Class 43.
• Mixing raw and processed. Fresh leaf is Class 31, packed tea is Class 30.
• Adding a wellness claim. It can pull the product into Class 5.
• Filing after the launch. Nepal is first-to-file and this class is full.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. An Ilam producer launches one name across packed orthodox tea, a bottled iced tea, fresh cut herbs and a tasting room in Kathmandu.

The packed tea and the bottled iced tea are both Class 30, and one specification can carry them because a tea-based drink stays in the class.

The fresh herbs are Class 31, since nothing has been processed. The tasting room is Class 43, because serving is a service.

Three applications, then, for one name. Filing only the first would leave the tasting room open for somebody else to register in the class it actually belongs to.

What can a class number not settle?

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

In the busiest class in the register that gap is wide. A perfectly correct Class 30 filing can still fail because the shelf was already occupied.

For a considered view before the print run, our clearance service weighs the name, the goods and the similarity together, and choosing the right class covers the classification decision.

In short

Class 30 is prepared plant food and the things that flavour it, plus drinks with a coffee, cocoa, chocolate or tea base. Raw goes to 31, animal origin to 29, serving to 43.

It is also Nepal's busiest class, with 10,728 published entries in our index. The number is the easy part; clearing a name against that many is the work.

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 in intellectual property law in Nepal.

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Send us the full range, from the packet to the tasting room, and we will say how many classes it needs and whether the name can be cleared. Start with trademark registration, or put the label to us through contact before the print run.