An online store registers its brand at the Department of Industry under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965. The usual gap is classes: selling your own branded goods through your own store is two things, so it is two applications. Nepal is first-to-file, so the earliest valid application usually wins.
Key takeaways
- Sec. 16 says title comes from registration. A busy store and a loyal following are not a right.
- An online seller usually needs the goods class for its own products and Class 35 for the retail service, because Sec. 18A allows one class per application.
- A reseller of other brands is providing a service, not selling own-brand goods, and files differently.
- A registration gives you something to enforce: the Act provides fines, confiscation and compensation for actual loss.
- It does not give you a domain, a platform account or protection outside Nepal.
What does a trademark give an online seller?
A defined, provable claim to the name on the goods or services listed in the registration. Under Sec. 16, copying or using a registered mark without the owner's written permission is prohibited.
That matters most when the argument starts. A certificate turns "we were here first" into a record with a date, a class and an owner on it.
Nepal also recognises passing off, which protects goodwill even without registration. It is a harder case to run: you have to prove reputation, misrepresentation, confusion and damage, rather than point at a certificate.
Which classes does an online store need?
Nepal uses the NICE Classification: 45 classes, 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services. Sec. 18A allows one class per application, so the class list is really a filing list.
| What the store does | Class usually looked at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sells clothing under its own label | Class 25 | The goods themselves carry your mark |
| Runs the shop, listings and promotions | Class 35 | Retail and advertising are a service |
| Sells its own packaged food | Class 29, 30 or 32 | Food and drink sit in goods classes |
| Sells its own jewellery or crafts | Class 14 or 21 | Again, the goods need their own filing |
| Ships a companion app | Class 9 | Downloadable software is a separate class |
Start with the NICE class finder to map what you sell, then decide in what order to file if the budget will not cover everything at once.
Do you need the goods class as well as Class 35?
If the goods carry your brand, yes. Class 35 protects the shopfront service. It does not protect a T-shirt with your logo printed on it.
The gap between the two is exactly where a copycat files. Someone can register your name for the goods while you hold only the retail service, and then your own product line is the problem.
The split matters more online, because to the customer the shop and the product look like one thing. To the register they are two, and the register is what decides a dispute.
What if you only resell other brands?
Then your own mark is the store name, and the service is what you are protecting. You are not selling own-brand goods, so the goods classes belong to the brands you carry, not to you.
Class 35 is usually the right place to look. The goods-class filings only start to matter when you launch a private label.
Do not file your suppliers' brands. Sec. 18 refuses a mark already registered in another person's name or one that damages another mark's goodwill, and Nepali decisions have treated bad-faith filings harshly.
Should you register the store name or the product names?
The store name first, in almost every case. It is the name customers search for, the one on the invoices and the one a copycat will take.
Individual product names are worth filing when a single product carries the business, or when a product name has become better known than the store.
The logo is a separate question again. Our guide on registering a logo as a trademark explains when a device mark earns its own application.
How do you register, step by step?
- Search the register. Check identical and similar names in each class. Our trademark search covers the 71,500 or more marks published in DoI bulletins.
- Fix the owner and the mark. The applicant should be the business that owns the brand, and the artwork should be the version you will keep.
- List every class you trade in. One application per class under Sec. 18A, in your chosen order.
- Prepare the file. Sec. 17 asks for the application form with four specimens of the mark, plus the supporting papers.
- File and answer examination. The DoI checks the mark against Sec. 18 and against earlier marks.
- Clear the bulletin. An accepted mark is published, anyone may oppose within 90 days, then the certificate issues.
The full process, with the refusal grounds, is in our pillar guide on how to register a trademark in Nepal. Our team runs the whole file as part of trademark registration.
What documents do you need?
A Nepali company generally files the application form, the mark label, a notarised power of attorney, the board resolution, the industry certificate and the latest tax clearance letter.
A foreign seller adds a certified or notarised copy of its home registration in English and files through a Nepal-based agent, because Nepal is outside the Madrid System.
The list changes from time to time. Check it against the Department of Industry or our guide to documents required for trademark registration before notarising.
What can you do about a copycat listing?
Start by checking whether the copy is inside your registered class. A registration protects the goods or services it names, so that question decides what you can actually assert.
The DoI is a quasi-judicial forum for infringement and passing-off complaints, and the Act provides fines, confiscation of infringing goods and compensation for actual loss. The Trademark Directives 2072 also name the District Administration Office, Nepal Police and Customs offices as enforcement bodies.
Marketplaces are a separate track. Each platform sets its own complaint rules under its own policy, not Nepali law, so read the platform's process before you rely on it. Our note on protecting your brand on Daraz and other marketplaces covers that side.
Getting the first letter right matters more than getting it sent fast. Our opposition and enforcement team handles both the bulletin window and the copycat who is already trading.
Does a trademark protect your domain?
No. A domain is an address bought from a registrar, and a trademark is a right recorded at the DoI. Holding one does not hand you the other.
They support each other in practice. A registration gives you a documented claim to the name when you have to argue about a confusingly similar address.
The logo artwork is a third thing again, protected as an original work under the Copyright Act 2002, where registration is optional.
How long does it take?
About 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate when nobody objects, and six to eight months in the smoothest cases. Reading our own bulletin archive, the filing-to-publication gap alone often runs well over a year.
Being an online business changes none of that. What you can control is the risk side: a clean class list, an accurate goods description and a prompt reply to examination.
What drives the cost?
The number of classes, first and foremost, because each one is its own application. Search depth, document preparation, notarisation and any examination reply or opposition add to the professional side.
Official charges are set by the Government and can change by notice, so use our fee calculator for current figures, or read what actually drives trademark cost in Nepal.
Does it protect you outside Nepal?
No. Trademark rights are territorial, so a Nepali registration covers Nepal. Shipping to customers abroad does not extend it.
Each market needs its own filing. A Nepali filing date can support a priority claim in other Paris Convention countries if you file there inside the Convention's time limit.
India is the common next step for Nepali sellers, and it has its own rules and timetable. Our guide on trademark registration in India for Nepali businesses sets those out.
Common mistakes
- Filing only Class 35. The retail service does not cover the goods that carry your brand.
- Waiting until the store is doing well. First-to-file rewards the earlier application, not the better business.
- Filing in a founder's name by accident. Ownership changes are a separate recorded action later.
- Filing a logo you are about to redesign. The certificate follows the artwork you submitted.
- Treating the domain or the platform account as the right. Neither is.
- Ignoring the bulletin. The 90-day window to oppose a copycat's mark runs whether you read it or not.
What does this look like in practice?
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Kathmandu store sells its own handwoven scarves online and files one application in Class 35 for the shop, because that felt like the online business.
A year later a competitor registers the same name in the clothing goods class and starts printing labels with it. The store holds the shopfront class and not the one that covers its own product.
The fix would have cost one more application at the start. Instead the argument is about who may put the name on a scarf, and the other side has the certificate for exactly that.
In short
Search the name, file the goods class for your own products and Class 35 for the shop, keep the applicant right, and do it before the store gets big enough to be worth copying.
Then watch the bulletin, renew every seven years and remember the certificate stops at the border.
The Act's text sits on the Nepal Law Commission site, and WIPO explains the class system on its NICE Classification page.
People also search for
- How to register a trademark in Nepal
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- Protecting your brand on Daraz
If your store sells goods that carry your own name, the class list is the decision worth getting right. Send us your product range and we will tell you what to file, and in what order.
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