How to Register a Trademark in Australia from Nepal

08 Aug, 2026
Updated 18 Oct, 2026
International & IP Law
IP Sewa
12 min read

To register a trademark in Australia, a Nepali business files a national application with IP Australia under the Trade Marks Act 1995, giving an address for service in Australia or New Zealand. A Nepal registration does not reach Australia, and Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so Australia needs its own application.

Key takeaways

A Department of Industry (DoI) registration protects your mark in Nepal only.
Australia joined the Madrid System in 2001; Nepal has not, so there is no international route from Kathmandu.
Paris Convention priority lets an Australian filing made within six months keep your Nepal filing date.
Every applicant needs an address for service in Australia or New Zealand.
Anyone may oppose an accepted Australian mark within two months of its acceptance being published.
Australian protection lasts ten years from the filing date and is renewable without limit.

Does a Nepal trademark protect your brand in Australia?

No. Trademark rights are national. Under Sec. 16 of Nepal's Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965, title comes from registration at the DoI, and that register covers Nepal alone.

Australia works the same way: section 20 of its Trade Marks Act 1995 gives exclusive rights only to the owner of a mark registered there. We read the compilation dated 19 September 2026; WIPO Lex keeps an older consolidation of the Australian Act.

The rule runs both ways. Nepal's Sec. 21B gives a foreign registration no validity here until the mark is registered in Nepal. Australian owners heading the other way should read our guide to trademark registration in Nepal for Australian companies.

Can a Nepali business use the Madrid System to reach Australia?

Not from Nepal. WIPO's party table for the Madrid Protocol, read on 18 October 2026, lists 117 members. Australia acceded with effect from 11 July 2001; Nepal is absent.

IP Australia says Madrid is open only to nationals or residents of a member, or to those with an industrial or commercial establishment in one, so a Nepal filing cannot designate Australia. The live list is on WIPO's Madrid Protocol party table.

A Nepali group with a genuine operating company in a Madrid country may qualify there, as our India guide explains for India; ask an Australian attorney first.

Most Nepali owners file nationally, claiming priority if they move in time.

How does Paris Convention priority link Nepal and Australia?

Both countries belong to the Paris Convention: Australia since 10 October 1925 and Nepal since 22 June 2001, per WIPO's party table. Article 4C of the Convention sets a six-month priority period for trademarks, counted from the first filing.

Section 29 of Australia's Act applies it, and its regulations count any Paris or WTO member as a Convention country. Priority covers only the goods and services in your Nepal application; extra items take the Australian date.

The Registrar may ask for a certified copy of the Nepal application, with an English translation and a verification certificate if it is in Nepali.

Priority rests on the Nepal filing date, not the registration certificate, which typically takes about 12–14 months (6–8 months in the smoothest cases). If your Nepal filing is already over six months old, file in Australia now. Our trademark registration service handles the Nepal filing.

Who can apply, and why do you need an Australian address?

Under section 27, the applicant must claim to own the mark and use, or intend to use, it for the listed goods and services. The owner must have legal personality, so IP Australia says business names, trusts and partnerships cannot be owners; list the company or the individuals instead.

Section 215(5) requires an address for service in Australia or New Zealand. In IP Australia's words, you must reside, or have an agent who resides, in either country.

You do not need an Australian company, only that address. Most foreign owners appoint a registered trade mark attorney, whose office becomes the address for service.

How do you prepare an Australian application?

Name the real owner exactly: IP Australia warns that a misspelt owner counts as a different legal entity, which is hard to fix. Prepare the work in this order:

Fix the owner and the mark. Use the company's full legal name, and the mark as it will appear on Australian packs.
Appoint an address for service. Choose an Australian or New Zealand attorney before the filing date matters.
List the goods and services. IP Australia's picklist holds over 71,500 entries across 45 classes; the NICE class finder gives a first direction.
Screen for conflicts. Search IP Australia's database or its free TM Checker. Our trademark conflict checker screens the Nepal side only.
Collect priority papers. Note your Nepal filing date and number, and arrange a certified copy and translation in case they are asked for.

How do classes work in Australia and in Nepal?

Australia joined the Nice Agreement with effect from 8 April 1961, per WIPO's party table, and uses the 45-class international list. Section 27(5) lets one application cover goods and services in one or more classes, with a fee for each class.

Nepal is not a party to that Agreement, but the DoI uses NICE classification under Sec. 18A, and Sec. 18A(2) needs a separate application for each class. A brand in three classes may therefore need one Australian application but three Nepal ones.

What happens after you file in Australia?

IP Australia, the government agency that runs the Trade Marks Office, lists four steps: application, examination, acceptance and registration. It says examination usually takes three to four months from filing, depending on demand.

If the examiner raises problems, such as a mark that is not distinctive or too close to an earlier one, you get a report, then 15 months from it to secure acceptance by arguing, amending or filing evidence of use.

Even an expedited application takes at least seven months from filing to registration, IP Australia says. Once registered, section 72 makes the registration effective from the filing date, or from the Nepal date if priority was claimed.

Every report goes to your address for service in Australia or New Zealand.

How does opposition work in Australia?

When IP Australia accepts a mark, it publishes the acceptance on its public database, the Australian Trade Mark Search. The old Official Journal of Trade Marks stopped publishing new issues on 1 November 2024.

Regulation 5.6 gives anyone two months from that publication to file a notice of intention to oppose. Grounds in the Act include that the applicant is not the true owner (section 58), does not intend to use the mark in Australia (section 59), or that another mark already has a reputation there (section 60).

If your mark is opposed, you must file a notice of intention to defend within one month, or the application lapses. An IP Australia hearing officer then decides the case.

How long does an Australian registration last?

Section 72(3) says a registration expires ten years after the filing date. That holds even when priority was claimed, so the ten years run from the Australian filing date, not the Nepal one.

Section 77 renews it for further ten-year periods, and the mark is renewable any number of times. IP Australia accepts renewal up to 12 months before the due date and sends a reminder two months ahead.

Miss the date and section 79 still allows renewal within six months after expiry, with an extra fee for each month late. After that, section 78 requires the Registrar to remove the mark from the Register.

Diarise renewal from the Australian filing date.

Do you have to use the mark in Australia?

Yes, eventually. Section 92 lets anyone seek removal of a mark not used in good faith in Australia for a continuous three years, ending one month before the application; section 93 allows that only three years after entry on the Register.

A second ground applies from filing: the owner never intended in good faith to use the mark in Australia and has not used it.

Nepal is stricter on paper: Sec. 18C allows cancellation of a mark not brought into use within one year of registration.

Nepal and Australia side by side

In Nepal, Sec. 17 needs the application with four specimens of the mark, and the DoI examines it under Sec. 18. Nepal protects a mark for seven years from registration under Sec. 18D, renewable any number of times under Sec. 23B, within 35 days of expiry plus a six-month late window on a fine. A published Nepal trademark can be opposed within 90 days of its publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin.

In Nepal the first-to-file principle generally applies, and in Australia an earlier local owner can block even a famous brand; our story of why Burger King trades as Hungry Jack's in Australia shows what that can cost. Our renewal service tracks the Nepal dates; your Australian attorney tracks the Australian ones.

Different clocks: diarise each country's dates separately.

What does Nepal's Bulletin data show about Australian brands?

These are IP Sewa counts of marks printed in DoI Bulletins, by the owner address on each entry, not official registration figures.

Measure	IP Sewa figure	How we counted it
Marks with an Australian owner address	171 (0.2%)	Of 71,842 marks in 123 Bulletins to 16 October 2026.
Distinct Australian owners	About 60	Owner names grouped, address and spelling variants merged.
Largest owner	Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment, 12 marks	Its OET marks, across 5 classes.
Next largest	Southcorp Brands and The Fred Hollows Foundation	10 marks each.
Top classes	Classes 41, 9 and 35	27, 17 and 16 marks, out of 28 classes used.
First published	FOSTER'S, Class 32	Carlton and United Breweries, Vol. 1 No. 6, 5 September 2006.
Share of the 12 latest issues	0.1%	13 of 9,652 marks, by publication date.

Class 41, education and training, leads, with English-test, university and student-recruitment marks such as IDP Education and La Trobe University. BlueScope Steel holds three of eight Class 6 marks, and Penfolds appears under Southcorp Brands.

Activity peaked in 2023, with 40 marks published, and 105 of the 171 have appeared since 2019. We excluded five Austrian entries misfiled as Australian. Check Australian owners with our owner search or the main trademark search.

What can IP Sewa do, and what can it not?

IP Sewa files trademarks at Nepal's Department of Industry. We do not file in Australia; filings there go through representatives authorised in Australia. We handle the Nepal half: a DoI application whose date and goods list can support a priority claim, plus the Nepali documents your attorney needs. For the Nepal filing you sign a notarised power of attorney appointing us.

Our trademark search service checks the Nepal register before you commit to a name, and our opposition team watches the Industrial Property Bulletin in Nepal. For other markets, see registering a trademark abroad from Nepal.

Common mistakes Nepali brands make in Australia

Trusting the Nepal certificate. It gives no right in Australia.
Letting six months pass. The priority window closes quietly.
Filing without an Australian address. An address for service in Australia or New Zealand is required.
Shipping before searching. IP Australia warns that goods infringing an Australian mark can be seized by the Australian Border Force; see our export brand protection guide.
Naming a business name as owner. Business names, trusts and partnerships cannot own an Australian mark.
Missing the opposition period. Australia allows two months, far shorter than Nepal's 90-day opposition window.
Diarising the wrong date. Australian terms count from filing; Nepal's count from registration.

What does a well-timed filing look like?

Here is an illustration, not a real case. "Ama Dhaka Weaves", a Lalitpur textile maker, files its word mark in Class 25 at the DoI on 10 February. A Melbourne boutique wants stock by October.

In April it appoints an Australian trade mark attorney as its address for service. The attorney files before 10 August, claiming the Nepal date, so both filings are pending in the company's own name when the order ships.

In short: how do you register a trademark in Australia from Nepal?

File in Nepal, then file nationally with IP Australia, through an Australian or New Zealand address for service, within six months to keep your Nepal date. Expect a two-month opposition period and ten years of protection from filing. Nepal marks are published on the DoI's Bulletin page.

People also search for

Planning a brand for Nepal and Australia? Start with our Nepal trademark registration, or contact IP Sewa about your Australian plan.

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Frequently asked questions

No. A registration at Nepal's Department of Industry covers Nepal only. Australia grants rights under its Trade Marks Act 1995, so you need a separate application with IP Australia.

No. Australia has been a Madrid Protocol member since 11 July 2001, but Nepal is not a member. An international application must start from a member country's office, so a Nepali business files a national application in Australia instead.

IP Australia, the government agency that runs the Trade Marks Office. It examines applications, publishes accepted marks on the Australian Trade Mark Search, and enters registered marks in the Register.

You need an address for service in Australia or New Zealand, under section 215 of the Act. You do not need an Australian company. Most foreign owners appoint a registered trade mark attorney, whose office becomes that address.

Six months from your first filing, under Article 4C of the Paris Convention, which both countries have joined. Australia applies it in section 29 of its Act. Only the goods and services in your Nepal application keep the earlier date.

IP Australia says examination usually takes three to four months from filing. An accepted mark is then open to opposition for two months, and even an expedited application takes at least seven months from filing to registration.

Anyone may file a notice of intention to oppose within two months of the acceptance being published on the Australian Trade Mark Search. In Nepal, a published trademark can be opposed within 90 days of its publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin.

Ten years from the Australian filing date, renewable for further ten-year periods without limit. You can renew up to a year early, and up to six months after expiry with a late fee. A Nepal registration lasts seven years from the date of registration.

Yes. Anyone may apply to remove a mark that has not been used in good faith in Australia for a continuous three years. That ground opens only three years after the mark is entered on the Register.

No. IP Sewa files trademark, patent and design applications at Nepal's Department of Industry. We can prepare the Nepal filing and documents that support an Australian priority claim, but an Australian representative must handle the Australian application.