Trademark Registration in Pokhara

A Pokhara business registers its trademark at the Department of Industry in Kathmandu. There is no separate trademark office in Pokhara, so the papers are prepared locally and filed there, usually through an agent. Nepal is first-to-file, and an unopposed application commonly takes about 12 to 14 months.

Key takeaways

• There is no trademark counter in Pokhara. Applications go to the Department of Industry in Kathmandu, and the registration is national, not local.
• Applicants with a Kaski district address hold about 859 published marks in Nepal's bulletin record, from roughly 242 applicant names.
• Their most-used class is not hospitality. It is Class 30 — tea, coffee, spices, flour and bakery goods — with about five times as many marks as Class 43.
• A company registration, a ward permit and a domain name are not brand protection.
• Nepal is first-to-file: long local use does not by itself beat someone else's earlier application.
• One application covers one Nice class (Sec. 18A), and a registration lasts 7 years (Sec. 18D) and is renewable.

Is there a trademark office in Pokhara?

No. Trademarks, patents and industrial designs in Nepal are all registered by one body, the Department of Industry in Kathmandu, under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965. There is no district trademark registry, and no separate Gandaki province register.

That has one useful consequence. Because there is only one register, a Pokhara registration is a Nepal-wide right. Nobody in Biratnagar or Nepalgunj can register the same mark for the same goods afterwards. The reverse is also true: a mark someone else already registered in Kathmandu blocks you in Pokhara, whether or not they trade there.

What do Pokhara businesses actually register?

We extract every entry from every Industrial Property Bulletin the Department publishes. Filtering that record by the applicant's address gives about 859 published marks for Kaski district, the district Pokhara sits in, from roughly 242 different applicant names.

The class breakdown is the surprise. Pokhara's public reputation is trekking, lakeside hotels and paragliding, so you would expect Class 43 for hospitality to lead. It does not. Class 30 leads it by a wide margin.

Why is Class 30 ahead of Class 43 in Kaski?

Two things are going on, and both matter if you run a hotel or a cafe.

The first is that food producers have a stronger reason to file. A packet of tea or a bag of spices travels: it sits on a shelf next to a competitor's packet in a town the maker has never visited, and the label is the only thing doing the work. A lodge, by contrast, sells to people standing in front of it, so the owner feels the name is already protected by the building.

The second is that this feeling is wrong, and the register shows the cost. With only about 75 Class 43 marks from the whole district on record, most Pokhara hospitality names are unregistered. That is not a sign the class is unimportant. It is a queue nobody has joined, and in a first-to-file country the empty queue is exactly where a copycat files.

If you run a venue, you can check your own name in a minute against the published trademark records before deciding.

Does a company registration protect your brand?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding we see from outside Kathmandu. Registering at the Office of the Company Registrar creates a legal entity. It does not give you any right in the name as a brand, and it does not stop another company registering that name as a trademark.

The same goes for a ward business permit, a signboard, a Facebook page with ten thousand followers, and a .com.np domain. Each is useful. None of them is a trademark. Only the Department of Industry register creates the right to stop someone else using your name on their goods or services.

How do you file from Pokhara without moving to Kathmandu?

Most of the work is local. Only the lodging of the application is not.

1. Search first. Look for identical and similar names in the classes you need, including sound-alikes and Devanagari spellings. The conflict checker screens more widely than an exact-word search.
2. Decide the owner. The applicant should be whoever really owns the brand: the company, the partnership or the individual. Changing this later is slow.
3. List every class you sell in. Sec. 18A requires a separate application per Nice class. Use the Nice class finder to test your own descriptions.
4. Sign and notarise in Pokhara. The power of attorney, the board resolution and the copies of your company papers can all be executed locally.
5. Your agent files in Kathmandu. The application, the label of the mark and the supporting documents go in together. Keep the acknowledgment and the application number.
6. Answer the examiner. Under Sec. 18 the Department checks distinctiveness and conflict with earlier marks, and may raise a query with a deadline.
7. Publication and opposition. An accepted mark appears in the Industrial Property Bulletin. A published trademark can be opposed within 90 days of publication; rely on the deadline the Department of Industry states and act before the last day.
8. Certificate. If nothing blocks it, the mark is registered for 7 years. Renewal runs on Sec. 23B: file within 35 days of expiry, with a limited late window after that.

What documents does a Pokhara applicant need?

A Nepali company normally prepares the application form, a clear label of the mark, a notarised power of attorney signed and witnessed, a board resolution authorising the filing, its industry certificate, and its latest tax clearance letter. An established business provides its latest tax clearance; a newly formed company will not have one yet, so confirm the Department of Industry's current checklist. An individual or a firm prepares the same core set with the business records that apply to it.

A foreign owner files through a Nepal-based agent and adds a certified copy of its home registration in English. Nepal is not in the Madrid System: under Sec. 21B, a mark registered abroad is not valid here until it is registered here. A Paris Convention priority claim is available within six months of the first foreign filing.

Requirements do change, so confirm the current list with the Department or your agent before you notarise anything. Our search and clearance service checks the name first, and the registration service runs the filing through to certificate.

How long does it take, and what drives the cost?

An unopposed application commonly runs about 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate. Only the smoothest cases move faster, and an opposition can add a long stretch on top. Filing does not wait for the certificate to be useful: your priority date is fixed the day the application is complete.

Cost has two parts. Government charges arise per class at the application and registration stages, which makes the number of classes the main driver. Professional fees depend on the depth of the search, the drafting, and whether the Department raises an objection. Foreign applicants pay government fees set for them and must use a local agent. For a figure on your own case, ask us through the contact page.

Common mistakes Pokhara businesses make

• Waiting for the second branch. By then the name is public and a competitor can file it first.
• Treating the company certificate as a trademark. Different registry, different right.
• Filing one class for a business with two halves. A lodge that also sells its own tea needs Class 43 and Class 30.
• Registering a logo when the name is what people say. A device filing does not always cover the plain word.
• Searching only the exact spelling. Refusals usually come from a name that sounds similar, not one that is spelled identically.
• Letting the examiner's query lapse. A missed deadline can end an application that was otherwise fine.
• Ignoring the bulletin. The 90-day window to oppose a conflicting mark is the cheapest moment to stop it.

What would a Pokhara filing look like in practice?

Here is an illustration, not a real case. A Lakeside guesthouse called Fewa Stone has run for eleven years, has a good reputation with trekkers, and has just started selling its own bottled pickle to visitors.

The owner has an OCR certificate and assumes the name is safe. It is not registered anywhere as a mark. The guesthouse service is Class 43; the pickle is Class 29. Two applications, prepared and signed in Pokhara, lodged in Kathmandu. If a Kathmandu trader files Fewa Stone for pickles next month, the eleven years of goodwill in a guesthouse do not automatically defeat that filing for a food product — and the owner would be arguing from behind. Filing first is cheaper than arguing later.

In short

Trademark registration in Pokhara is national registration done from Pokhara. Prepare and sign locally, file at the Department of Industry in Kathmandu, and expect roughly 12 to 14 months when nobody opposes. The register shows that Kaski's businesses file food-product marks far more often than hospitality marks, which means most Pokhara venue names are still unclaimed — including, possibly, yours.

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Running a business in Pokhara and not sure whether your name is already taken, or how many classes you need? Send us the name and what you sell and we will tell you what the register says. This article is general information, not legal advice.