A consulting firm registers its name and logo at the Department of Industry, one application for each class it sells in. The hard part is not the form. It is that "consultancy" is scattered across at least five classes, decided by the subject of the advice.
Key takeaways
- There is no "consulting" class. The subject of the advice picks the class.
- Management, HR, marketing and recruitment advice sits in Class 35.
- Engineering, IT and scientific consultancy sits in Class 42.
- Legal services moved out of Class 42 into Class 45 in 2007, not in 2002.
- Bookkeeping, audit and tax filing are Class 35, while financial advice is Class 36.
- A Nepali application covers one NICE class, so a mixed practice needs several.
- Nepal is first-to-file, and a firm name at the Company Registrar is not a trade mark.
Why is "consulting" not a trademark class?
Because the classification sorts services by what is being advised on, not by the job title of the person advising. Two firms that both call themselves consultants can land in different classes.
That follows from the structure: each class is a field of activity, and advice about a field belongs with the field.
What does Class 35 actually cover?
Its heading is short: advertising; business management, organization and administration; office functions. Everything about running a commercial enterprise lives here.
The published list of terms is where the detail is. It names business management consultancy, business organization consultancy, professional business consultancy, personnel management consultancy and advisory services for business management.
It also covers personnel recruitment, negotiating business contracts for others, cost price analysis and import-export agency services. A recruitment or strategy practice is squarely inside it.
When is the advice Class 42 instead?
When the subject is technical or scientific. Class 42 covers scientific and technological services and research, industrial analysis and design, quality control, and the design and development of computer hardware and software.
Its terms include technological consultancy, computer technology consultancy, computer software consultancy, computer security consultancy and architectural consultancy.
The class pushes business research and marketing research back to Class 35, and financial research to Class 36. Research is not automatically technical.
What happens when two classes use the same words?
They both exist, and the difference is deliberate. The classification lists business consultancy services for digital transformation in Class 35 and technological consultancy services for digital transformation in Class 42.
Same buzzword, two classes. If your team redesigns the operating model, that is Class 35; if it rebuilds the systems, that is Class 42.
Most digital consultancies here do both, which is why their filings are often too narrow. Our note on goods against services covers the same logic one level up.
Where do accounting, audit and tax sit?
In Class 35, which surprises most people. The class covers administration of business transactions and financial records, naming book-keeping, statements of accounts, business and financial auditing, business appraisals, and tax preparation and filing.
So an audit or tax practice is a Class 35 business, not a Class 36 one. The word "financial" in a service name does not move it.
Which class covers financial advice?
Class 36, whose heading is financial, monetary and banking services; insurance services; real estate services. Its terms include financial consultancy, financial advice, financial advice relating to tax, debt advisory services and insurance consultancy.
The line is what the work is. Filing a client's tax return is administration in Class 35; advising on the financial consequences of a tax position is Class 36.
Class 35 also excludes financial analysis, financial management and real estate management by name, which settles it in the classification's own words.
Why are legal services in Class 45 rather than Class 42?
Because they moved, and later than most sources claim. The 2002 edition created Classes 43, 44 and 45, but its Class 42 heading still ended with the words "legal services".
The move happened in the ninth edition, in force on 1 January 2007, when legal services left Class 42 and the heading ended at computer hardware and software instead.
That five-year gap matters for old filings. A mark filed for legal services before 2007 may sit in Class 42 on the record, and Class 42's current text excludes legal services outright.
What else lives in Class 45?
More than litigation. The class lists intellectual property consultancy, legal and regulatory compliance auditing, arbitration and mediation, and registration of domain names.
Occupational safety and physical security consultancy sit there too. If your compliance practice is framed as legal work, test Class 45 first. Naming questions for a law firm are a separate topic, covered in our note on naming a law firm in Nepal.
Where does paid training belong?
Class 41, which covers education, training, entertainment and cultural activities. Its terms include arranging and conducting workshops, seminars and conferences.
A consultancy selling a two-day leadership programme under its own brand is selling a Class 41 service. The advisory engagement behind it may still be Class 35.
How crowded are these classes in Nepal?
Class 35 is the busiest service class in our index of published marks, with 3,804 entries. Class 41 has 1,503, Class 42 has 1,341 and Class 36 has 896.
Class 45 has 316, among the thinnest on the register: little competition, and few precedents to reason from.
These are IP Sewa counts of published bulletin entries rather than official figures, and they move with every issue. Browse them with class-scoped search.
| What the firm sells | Likely class | The test |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy, HR, operations, recruitment | 35 | Is the subject the running of a business? |
| Bookkeeping, audit, tax preparation | 35 | Is it administration of financial records? |
| Financial, insurance and debt advice | 36 | Is the subject money itself? |
| IT, software, engineering, architecture | 42 | Is the subject technical or scientific? |
| Paid workshops, courses, seminars | 41 | Is the customer buying training? |
| Legal, IP and compliance advice | 45 | Is it legal work by its nature? |
Does one application cover several classes?
No. Sec. 18A(2) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 requires a separate application to register a mark for goods or services placed in different categories.
Sec. 18A(3) lets the same mark be registered in another category if it belongs there, so widening the cover later means filing again rather than amending.
Budget accordingly, and file in order of revenue. Our guide to choosing a class sets out how to sequence it, and the NICE class finder gives a first read on a plain description.
Why does filing order matter?
Because under Sec. 16(1) a person acquires title to a trade mark upon registration at the Department. Nepal is first-to-file, and a reputation built on referrals is not a registration.
Registering at the Company Registrar does not help either: that creates the entity, not the brand. Our note on intellectual property law in Nepal explains the separation.
How do you search before you file?
Search the name, then the sound-alikes and the obvious abbreviations. Our Nepal trade mark search covers marks published in the Industrial Property Bulletin.
Advisory names cluster around a small pool of words, so the shortlist matters more here than in most sectors. Try a name availability check and read what makes two marks confusingly similar.
A published-mark search is screening, not clearance. It cannot show applications awaiting publication, so our search service takes the check further.
What does the filing involve?
- Fix the owner. The company, partnership or individual that will hold the mark.
- Map the revenue lines to classes, using the service wording rather than your job title.
- Search each class you intend to file in, separately.
- File one application per class, with the prescribed form and four specimens of the mark.
- Answer the examiner on distinctiveness or similarity with evidence rather than assertion.
- Follow publication, which opens the objection period before a registration certificate issues.
Our trademark registration service runs the whole sequence, and the application process guide covers it step by step.
What documents does the Department want?
Section 17(1) sets the core: the prescribed application form with four specimens of the mark. In practice a Nepali company adds a board authority, a power of attorney where an agent signs, its industry registration and a current tax clearance (a new company will not have one yet; check the DoI list).
A foreign firm files through a representative here and adds certified home papers. Confirm the current list with the Department of Industry, and see the documents guide.
How long does it take?
Longer than most quoted figures. Our own published-mark data puts the gap from filing to bulletin publication at often fifteen to eighteen months.
Publication then opens the objection period. Treat any date you are given as an estimate, and do not schedule a rebrand around it.
How long is the objection period?
A published trade mark can be opposed within a ninety-day opposition window counted from its publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin.
Rely on the deadline the Department of Industry states and act before the last day. Our opposition and enforcement service handles the filing.
Can you put the registered symbol on a proposal?
Not before the registration exists. The symbols carry no legal effect in Nepal, and the Nepal Law Commission text of the Act never uses them.
The reverse claim does have an effect. Sec. 18B forbids using a trade mark as a registered trade mark without registering it, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods involved.
For a firm whose product is judgement, a wrong claim on a cover page is a poor advertisement as well as a risk.
What happens after registration?
The mark runs seven years from registration under Sec. 18D. Sec. 23B sets the renewal term, and a trade mark may be renewed any number of times for seven years at a time.
Under Sec. 18C, a mark not brought into use within one year of registration can be cancelled after enquiry, which matters if you file a class ahead of launching the service line.
Three classes means three dates. Our renewal service keeps them together.
Common mistakes
- Filing Class 35 alone when half the revenue is technical work in Class 42.
- Assuming an audit or tax practice belongs in Class 36.
- Relying on pre-2007 advice that puts legal services in Class 42.
- Choosing a descriptive name that describes the service rather than distinguishing the firm.
- Filing only the logo, so a redesign leaves the words unprotected.
- Listing every service the founders can imagine, then facing a use requirement.
- Treating the Company Registrar entry as brand protection.
A worked example
Sajilo Advisory in Lalitpur sells operating-model reviews, a paid leadership workshop and a systems implementation practice. This is an illustration, not a real case, but a common Nepali shape.
The reviews are Class 35 and the implementation work is Class 42, the split the firm had missed. The workshop is Class 41, to be filed once the programme has a name of its own.
It files the word mark in Class 35 first, where most of the fees sit, then Class 42 in the same year.
What should a consulting firm do first?
Four steps, none of which needs a filing decision yet. The revenue map is the work.
In short
Stop asking which class "consulting" is in, and start asking what each engagement is about. Business subjects go to Class 35, technical ones to Class 42, money to Class 36, training to Class 41 and legal work to Class 45.
Then file one application per class, in the order the revenue justifies, and keep the renewal dates together. The World Intellectual Property Organization publishes the current class texts if you want the wording itself.
For a wider starting point, see trade mark registration for small firms.
People also search for
- How to register a trademark in Nepal
- What the NICE classification is
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- Why applications are rejected in Nepal
- Trade mark registration for law firms
If your firm sells more than one kind of advice, the class question is really a sequencing question about which line to protect first. Contact our team and we will map the engagements to the filings with you.
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