Trademark Registration in Kathmandu

Trademark registration in Kathmandu is done at the Department of Industry (DoI) in Tripureshwor, which registers brands for the whole country under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965. Brand registration in Nepal works the same from any district; what is local is the office, your market and the rivals filing beside you.

Key takeaways

• The DoI in Tripureshwor, Kathmandu takes filings from every district; registration protects the mark across Nepal.
• About 10,200 published marks in our bulletin archive give a Kathmandu address, about a quarter of Nepali-address marks.
• Kathmandu files far more service marks than the rest of Nepal: 32% of its marks, against 13% across all Nepali addresses.
• One application covers one NICE class (Sec. 18A), so a café that also sells packaged tea needs two.
• The first-to-file principle generally applies: the earlier complete application usually wins.
• A published mark can be opposed within 90 days; a registration lasts seven years from registration and is renewable.

Where do you register a trademark in Kathmandu?

At the Department of Industry, which gives its address as Tripureshwor, Kathmandu. Its Industrial Property Section (औद्योगिक सम्पत्ति शाखा) handles trademark, patent and design filings, renewals, transfers and complaints. The checklists are on the DoI's Industrial Property Section page.

There is no Kathmandu register. A business in Biratnagar files with the same office, under the same Act, for the same national right. Being near Tripureshwor helps with errands, not the result.

The DoI has no public online status tracker, so progress is checked through the office or your agent. Our guide to registering a trademark online in Nepal separates the remote preparation from the filing itself.

Does a Kathmandu registration protect your brand outside the valley?

Yes. Under Sec. 16(1), a person acquires title to a trademark "upon registration" at the Department, and the register is national. A Kathmandu bakery's registered mark can be defended against a copy in Pokhara, and a Pokhara owner's earlier filing can block a Kathmandu application.

Local fame is not a right on its own. A name well known in New Road but never filed can be taken by someone elsewhere who files first. Our Lalitpur and Bhaktapur guides show what businesses next door file.

How many Kathmandu businesses have published trademarks?

IP Sewa extracts every entry from every Industrial Property Bulletin. On 16 October 2026 our archive held 71,842 published marks from 123 issues, 42,939 of them with an owner address in Nepal. Of those, 10,212 give a Kathmandu address, about 24%.

Our filter is owner country Nepal and a parsed city field containing "Kathmandu". Matching the word anywhere in the printed address gives 11,056 instead. Both count published Bulletin entries, not registrations confirmed on the DoI register.

The 10,212 marks belong to roughly 4,320 owners, after we group names so one company counts once. Most are small: about 2,700 owners have a single published mark, and only 137 have ten or more.

Kathmandu's share is rising. By the year each Bulletin came out, it was 20.9% of Nepali-address marks in 2006–2015 and 21.3% in 2016–2022, then 27.6% from 2023 to October 2026. In the newest issue, Volume 20, Number 8, 51 of the 156 Nepali-address marks came from Kathmandu.

What do Kathmandu businesses register most?

Food still leads, as it does nationally. Class 30, covering coffee, tea, rice, flour and spices, holds 1,474 Kathmandu-address marks. Retail and advertising services in Class 35 come second, ahead of clothing, cosmetics and drinks.

The last column compares Kathmandu with every Nepali-address mark in the class: it supplies 60% of Nepal's published restaurant and hotel marks, but only 16% of Class 30, where the rest of the country files most heavily.

Which sectors are more Kathmandu than the rest of Nepal?

Services. Of Kathmandu-address marks, 31.6% sit in the service classes 35–45; across all Nepali-address marks the figure is 12.8%. That fits a capital where banks, schools, travel firms, software houses and agencies are based.

The contrast runs the other way for liquor. Class 33, alcoholic drinks other than beer, is the second-largest class among Nepali-address marks, yet Kathmandu addresses hold only 4.6% of it. A Kathmandu distiller's rivals mostly file from outside the valley, so its search must too.

Neighbourhoods show up only faintly. Among Kathmandu-address marks, 66 mention Thamel, led by restaurant, retail and travel classes, while the 208 that mention Balaju lean to food and drinks in Classes 30 and 33. Addresses are typed many ways, so treat these as hints.

Is company registration in Kathmandu the same as brand registration?

No. The Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) creates the company, the Inland Revenue Department issues the PAN, and your ward office records the business locally. None gives a right in the brand name.

Only a DoI trademark does that. The DoI's own checklist asks for your business registration and VAT or PAN proof, so the company steps usually come first. For a business that has no brand yet, our Brand Launch package coordinates those steps with the trademark.

Which NICE class does a Kathmandu business need?

Nepal uses the NICE classification of 45 classes, 1–34 for goods and 35–45 for services, as set out on WIPO's Nice Classification page. Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each class.

Choose by what you actually sell. A momo restaurant needs Class 43, frozen momo packs sold in shops fall in a goods class, and a delivery app may raise Class 9 or Class 42. The NICE class finder suggests likely classes before you file.

How do you register a trademark from Kathmandu?

The steps are the same for every applicant in Nepal:

1. Search first. Check identical and similar names in your classes with the published trademark search, then test sound-alikes in the conflict checker.
2. Fix the class and wording. List the goods or services you really offer, one application per class.
3. Prepare the file. The Schedule 1(c) form, four specimens of the mark and the fee (Sec. 17).
4. File at the DoI. Your complete filing sets your place in line.
5. Answer examination. The DoI investigates the mark and gives you a chance to be heard (Sec. 18(1)).
6. Publication and opposition. An accepted mark is printed in the Bulletin, and others have 90 days to oppose it.
7. Registration certificate. If no opposition succeeds, you pay the registration fee and the DoI issues the certificate (Sec. 18(2)).

A free search shows what has been published, but it cannot judge whether two marks are confusingly similar. For a written opinion, use our trademark search and clearance team; to see a rival's other marks, try the owner search.

What documents does the DoI ask for?

For a Nepali applicant, the DoI's own checklist lists:

• the completed application form;
• a copy of the permission or registration certificate for the related industry or business, with VAT or PAN proof;
• four specimens of the mark, at most 8 × 8 cm, showing the business name, address and goods or services;
• the receipt for the application fee; and
• a power of attorney where a representative files.

Our advocate's checklist adds a notarised power of attorney, a board resolution and, from an established business, its latest tax clearance. A newly formed company will not have a tax clearance yet, so confirm the DoI's current checklist before you file.

What extra does a foreign owner filing in Kathmandu need?

A foreign applicant adds a certified copy of its home registration certificate, still in force, and a priority-date letter if it claims priority. It also needs a power of attorney and a correspondence address in Nepal, since Sec. 20 lets any applicant act through an attorney.

Nepal is not in the Madrid System, so an international registration does not reach Nepal. Sec. 21C lets the DoI register a mark already registered abroad without its usual enquiries, with Paris Convention facilities such as priority.

How long does trademark registration in Kathmandu take?

An unopposed application typically takes about 12–14 months from filing to certificate, and 6–8 months only in the smoothest cases. Both are estimates, not promises; an examination reply or opposition adds time.

Publication itself is often quicker. In the 12 latest issues, from 8 July 2025 to 16 October 2026, Kathmandu-address marks reached the Bulletin a median of 2.8 months after filing. Of those, 77% took under six months and 5% more than two years.

A Kathmandu address does not speed anything up: other Nepali addresses had a median of 2.3 months. The national median, 3.5 months, is higher because it includes foreign owners; across all marks, about one in six took over two years.

What happens during the 90-day opposition window?

Once a mark is published in the Industrial Property Bulletin, anyone may oppose it within 90 days of publication. Rely on the deadline the DoI states and act before the last day; the DoI hears the opposition before it decides.

A Kathmandu business should check each new issue for names close to its own, on the DoI's Bulletin page or through our search. Our opposition and enforcement team can file an opposition or act against a copycat.

How long does a Kathmandu registration last?

Sec. 18D sets a term of seven years from the date of registration, not filing. Sec. 23B makes a trademark renewable any number of times, seven years at a time.

Renew within 35 days after expiry. A late renewal is possible within six months on payment of a fine; after that, the registration is cancelled automatically.

Sec. 18C also lets the DoI cancel a mark not brought into use within one year of registration. The renewal calculator works out your dates, and our trademark renewal service files each class on time.

Common mistakes Kathmandu applicants make

• Filing only the shop. A café registers Class 43 but leaves its branded coffee beans unprotected in Class 30.
• Trusting the company name. An OCR registration or a ward record gives no brand right.
• Searching only the valley. The register is national, so a rival in Butwal counts.
• Exact-match searching. "Sajilo Swaad" and "Sajilo Swad" sound alike; check sound, meaning and logo.
• Using ® too early. Sec. 18B bars presenting a mark as registered before it is, and Sec. 19 adds a fine and confiscation of the goods.
• Redrawing the logo later. A registration protects the mark as filed.

What does a Kathmandu filing plan look like?

Here is an illustration, not a real case. "Lekh Trail" is a trekking agency in Thamel that also sells its own branded down jackets. Arranging tours falls in Class 39 and the jackets in Class 25, so it needs two applications.

A search finds no "Lekh Trail" in either class, so it files both as word marks first and leaves the logo for later. The jacket filing matters most, because Class 25 is crowded in Kathmandu, with 855 published marks.

If a near-identical name appears in a later Bulletin, the agency has 90 days to oppose it. A distinctive jacket shape could also be protected as an industrial design, which our Kathmandu design guide covers.

In short: how does trademark registration in Kathmandu work?

You file at the DoI in Tripureshwor, but the right you receive is national, under the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act. Kathmandu's filings lean to services far more than the rest of Nepal's, so check every class you sell in.

For brand registration in Nepal from Kathmandu: search, file early in each class, watch the Bulletin and renew on time.

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Filing from Kathmandu? Start with our service for trademark registration in Nepal, or contact IP Sewa to plan your classes.