A Nepali business protects its brand in India by filing a national application with India's Trade Marks Registry under the Trade Marks Act 1999. A Nepal registration does not cross the border, and Nepal is outside the Madrid System. File in Nepal first, and you have six months to claim that date in India.
Key takeaways
- A Department of Industry (DoI) registration protects your mark in Nepal only; India needs its own filing.
- India joined the Madrid System in 2013, but Nepal has not, so there is no international route from Kathmandu.
- Paris Convention priority lets an Indian filing made within six months keep your Nepal filing date.
- India's rules require an address for service in India, which is why foreign owners use an Indian agent.
- A mark in Nepali words needs a roman transliteration and an English translation in India.
- India allows four months for opposition and grants ten years, counted from the application date.
- Do not print ® on goods sold in India on the strength of a Nepal registration alone.
Why does a Nepal registration stop at the border?
Trademark rights are national. Under Sec. 16(1) of Nepal's Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965, title to a mark comes from registration at the DoI, and that register covers Nepal alone. India runs a separate register under its own statute.
The rule works both ways. Nepal's Sec. 21B says a mark registered abroad has no validity in Nepal until it is registered here, and India's Act gives a Nepali certificate no force in India either. A Nepali tea or pashmina brand selling in Delhi is unprotected there until it files.
The first-to-file principle generally applies in Nepal, and India dates every registration from its application, so a trader who files your name first in India leaves you arguing from behind.
Who runs trademark registration in India?
The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks heads India's Trade Marks Registry and acts as the Registrar of Trade Marks. The office sits under India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and its website is ipindia.gov.in.
The Registry has existed since 1940. It works through branch offices in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, and Sec. 18(3) of the Indian Act sends a foreign applicant to the office covering its address for service in India.
Can a Nepali business use the Madrid System to reach India?
Not from Nepal. WIPO's party table for the Madrid Protocol, read on 16 October 2026, lists 117 members. India acceded on 8 April 2013, in force 8 July 2013; Nepal is absent.
An international application must start from a member's office, so a Nepal filing cannot designate India.
One edge case is worth asking about. IP India says an applicant with a real and effective business establishment in India, and a basic Indian mark, can file through India to reach other Madrid countries. A Nepali group with a genuine Indian subsidiary may qualify; an Indian attorney should confirm it.
The live list is on WIPO's Madrid Protocol party table. Our guide to IP protection for Nepali exporters covers other markets.
How does Paris Convention priority link Nepal and India?
Both countries belong to the Paris Convention: India since 7 December 1998 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, excluding the filing day.
India's Act applies it in Sec. 154(2): an Indian application made within six months of a convention-country filing is registered as of that earlier date.
Rule 24 of India's Trade Marks Rules 2017 asks for a certificate from the first office, filed with the application or within two months.
For a Nepali owner, the first office is the DoI. Priority keeps your place in the queue, but it covers only the goods and services in your Nepal application, so a wider Indian list gets the later date for the extra items.
Should you file in Nepal or India first?
For most Nepali brands, Nepal comes first. It is the home market, and a DoI application gives you a priority date to carry into India. If Indian sales are months away, the six-month window buys planning time.
If an Indian launch or distributor deal is imminent, file in both countries close together instead. If your Nepal application is already older than six months, do not wait: file in India now and accept the Indian date. Our trademark registration service handles the Nepal filing at the DoI.
What does the Indian application need from a Nepali owner?
Under Rule 17 of India's Trade Marks Rules 2017, every applicant must give an address for service in India: a postal address and an email address. That is why a Nepali owner normally appoints an Indian agent, authorised under Rule 19 with a power of attorney; the agent's address can then serve as yours.
Name the real owner. If the company owns the brand, a filing in a founder's name creates a transfer job later.
India also groups goods and services by NICE classification, and Sec. 18(2) allows several classes in one Indian application, unlike Nepal's one class per filing.
Prepare the work in this order:
- Fix the owner and the mark. Use the exact legal name, and the mark as it will appear on Indian packs: word, logo, or both.
- List the goods and services. Draft wording for each class you will really sell in India; the NICE class finder gives a first direction.
- Screen for conflicts. Search India's register through your agent. Our trademark conflict checker screens the Nepal side only.
- Collect priority papers. Note your Nepal filing date and number, and arrange the DoI's proof of filing for Rule 24.
- State use honestly. Rule 25 asks whether the mark is used in India or only proposed to be used; claimed prior use needs an affidavit and evidence.
- Translate documents. Rule 49 asks for a Hindi or English translation of any document in another language, including Nepali records.
What does "trademark" mean in Nepali, and does India need your mark's meaning?
In Nepali a trademark is ट्रेडमार्क, the word in the Act's own title, or व्यापार चिन्ह, which heads the DoI's trademark application form. Both are official in Nepal.
India cares about the meaning of the mark itself. Rule 28 of its Trade Marks Rules asks for a precise transliteration and translation of words in a script other than Hindi or English, and the application form asks for the language, a roman spelling and an English translation when a mark is in another language.
Devanagari is shared by Hindi and Nepali, so ask your agent how a Nepali-language word will be declared. The translation is read: a Nepali word that names the product may look as descriptive to an Indian examiner as it would in Nepal.
What happens after the Indian application is filed?
The Registry examines the application and may object or call a hearing, which your agent answers.
An accepted mark is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal. Under Sec. 21(1), as amended in 2010, anyone may oppose within four months of that advertisement, and Rule 42 sets the same four-month opposition period.
The 2010 amendment also told the Registrar, in Sec. 23(1), to register an unopposed accepted mark within eighteen months of filing. Treat that as the law's target, not a promise. The registration certificate follows under Sec. 23(2).
Compare Nepal: a published trademark can be opposed within 90 days of its publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and an unopposed filing typically takes about 12–14 months to certificate. Our opposition and enforcement team watches the Nepal side.
How long does an Indian registration last?
Sec. 25 of India's Act grants ten years, renewable for further ten-year periods without limit. Because Sec. 23(1) registers a mark as of its application date, IP India counts the ten years from the date of application. With a priority claim, that date is the Nepal filing date.
A late renewal is possible within six months of expiry on a surcharge, and Sec. 25(4) allows restoration within a year in some cases.
Nepal works differently: seven years from registration under Sec. 18D, renewable within 35 days of expiry. Our renewal service tracks Nepali deadlines; an Indian agent tracks India's.
Can you print ® on goods sold in India?
Only with care. Sec. 107(1) of India's Act makes it an offence to present an unregistered mark as registered. Sec. 107(3) says that, in India, "registered" or a sign such as ® is read as a reference to the Indian register.
There are narrow exceptions: words at least as large naming the foreign country where the mark is registered, or goods made only for export to that country. So a Nepal-only mark on Indian shelves should not carry a bare ®. Nepal's own Sec. 18B bars the same false claim here.
What does Nepal's Bulletin data say about Indian brands?
Indian owners are the largest foreign group in Nepal's published trademarks, and recent issues show no slowdown. These are IP Sewa counts of marks published in DoI Bulletins, not official registration figures.
| Measure | IP Sewa figure | How we counted it |
|---|---|---|
| Marks with an owner in India | 5,874 (8.2%) | Of 71,842 marks in 123 Bulletins, 16 October 2026. |
| Rank among owner countries | 2nd | After Nepal (42,939), ahead of the US (5,498). |
| Distinct Indian owners | 1,540 | Owner names grouped, address variants merged. |
| Largest Indian owner | ITC, 652 marks | Entries with an Indian owner address. |
| Top classes | Classes 5, 3 and 30. | 1,063, 609 and 474 marks. |
| Share of the 12 latest issues | 9% | 877 of 9,652 marks, by publication date. |
A Nepali food, cosmetics or medicine brand heading south should expect India's own register to be crowded in exactly those classes. Search early. You can check what Indian owners have published in Nepal on our trademark search.
What can IP Sewa do, and what can it not?
IP Sewa files trademarks at Nepal's DoI. We do not file in India, and Indian representation needs an Indian agent or attorney. Where we help is the Nepal half: a clean Nepal application whose date and goods list can support a priority claim, and searches before you commit to a name.
Our trademark search service checks the Nepal register. For the step-by-step Indian filing walk-through, read our companion guide to filing a trademark in India, and bring any cross-border question to our team.
Common mistakes: what trips Nepali brands up in India?
- Trusting the Nepal certificate. It gives no right in India, and no right on a Madrid basis either.
- Letting six months pass. The priority window closes quietly, and the Indian date becomes your later one.
- Widening the list in India without thinking. Only goods covered in Nepal carry the Nepal date.
- Skipping the translation. A Nepali-word mark needs its language, roman spelling and meaning declared.
- Printing ® on Indian packs. Sec. 107(3) reads it as a claim to Indian registration.
What does a well-timed filing look like?
Here is an illustration, not a real case. "Gurans Tea", a Dhankuta grower, files its word and label marks in Class 30 at the DoI on 1 March. It wants an Indian distributor by autumn.
In June it appoints an Indian agent, declares the word Gurans as Nepali, meaning rhododendron, and files in India before the end of August, claiming the Nepal date. The DoI proof follows within two months. When the distributor signs, both filings are in place, and the Indian packs say "TM" until the Indian certificate issues.
In short: how does a Nepali business protect its trademark in India?
File in Nepal, then file nationally in India within six months to keep your Nepal date. Use an Indian agent, declare what Nepali words mean, watch the four-month opposition period and keep ® off Indian goods until India registers you.
The Nepal half is where we can help.
People also search for
- Step-by-step: filing a trademark in India
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- Intellectual property registration in Nepal: full guide
Planning a brand for both sides of the border? Start with our Nepal trademark registration, or contact IP Sewa to talk through how your Nepal filing fits an India plan.
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