Trademark Renewal Myths in Nepal

Most trademark renewal myths in Nepal get the clock wrong. A registered mark lasts seven years from registration (Sec. 18D), is renewed within 35 days after the term ends (Sec. 23B), may be renewed late within a further six months on a fine, and is then cancelled automatically. Nothing renews itself.

Key takeaways

• A Nepal trademark lasts seven years from registration, not ten, and not from filing.
• The Act counts the 35-day renewal window from the day the term ends.
• A six-month late window follows on a fine; after it, the registration is cancelled automatically.
• A trademark is renewable any number of times. Only patents and designs are capped at two renewals.
• Use does not replace renewal, and renewal cannot add a class or a new logo.
• The DoI's checklist asks for proof the mark is in use and that your business registration is renewed.
• Nepal is outside the Madrid System, so every renewal is filed at the Department of Industry (DoI).

Does a Nepal trademark really last 10 years?

No. Ten-year terms are common in many countries, which is where the myth comes from, but Nepal's rule is seven years. Sec. 18D of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 says the owner's title stays valid "for a period of seven years from the date of registration".

Owners with marks in several countries are the most exposed. A global calendar built on ten-year cycles puts the Nepal date three years late. Keep Nepal's dates in their own column, copied from the Nepali certificate. The Act itself is on the Nepal Law Commission site.

Does the seven-year term start on the filing date?

No. It starts on the date of registration, which is printed on your registration certificate. The filing date can be much earlier, because a mark is examined, published in the Industrial Property Bulletin and opened to opposition before it is registered.

IP Sewa's own data shows how wide that gap can be. In the 12 latest bulletins by date, the median time from filing to publication was about 3.5 months across 9,652 published marks, but about one mark in six took over two years.

So use the certificate, not your memory of the filing. Our free renewal calculator takes the registration date and returns the expiry date, with a planning date about six months before it.

Must you renew before the expiry date or lose the mark?

This myth has the clock backwards. Sec. 23B(1) says the holder shall renew "within a period of 35 days from the date of expiry" of the term. The Act's own renewal form, Schedule 2(F), is written for a mark whose registration "has expired". The standard window opens when the term ends.

That is no reason to wait. Prepare the documents before the expiry date so the filing can go in early in the window, and ask the DoI whether it will take a filing earlier, a point the Act does not address. Our trademark renewal service builds the file ahead of time.

Is a missed deadline the end of your trademark?

Not straight away. Sec. 23B(2) allows renewal within a further 6 months on payment of a fine. Confirm the current amount with the DoI before you file, since fees and fines in the Act have been amended over the years.

The late window is the last door. If it closes without a renewal, the Act says the registration "shall automatically" be cancelled. Sec. 23B gives no hearing and no further grace period, so treat those six months as an emergency, never as part of the plan.

Will the DoI remind you before your mark expires?

Do not count on it. Sec. 23B puts the duty on the holder, who "shall renew". Nothing in that section requires the Department to warn you, and the address on an old file may be years out of date.

Build your own reminders instead. Note each registration date, its expiry and the end of the 35-day window, and give one person the job of watching them.

A brand registered in three classes holds three registrations, often with three different dates. For the full deadline walk-through, see our guide to trademark renewal in Nepal.

Can a trademark be renewed only twice, like a patent?

No. This myth mixes up the three rights. Sec. 23B(3) caps a patent at two renewals of seven years and a design at two renewals of five years, but lets a trade mark be renewed "any number of times for a period of seven years at a time".

The clause is easy to misread in the English consolidation, because footnote markers split it straight after the patent rule. Read past them and the trademark half is plain: a mark that is renewed on time can last indefinitely.

Patent and design owners have their own guides: patent renewal in Nepal and industrial design renewal in Nepal.

Does using the mark keep it alive without renewal?

No. Title to a trademark arises "upon registration" under Sec. 16(1), and Sec. 23B ends that registration if it is not renewed. Selling under the name every day files nothing. Because the first-to-file principle generally applies, a lapsed name can be claimed by whoever applies next.

Here is an illustration, not a real case. "Himal Bean", a Kathmandu café brand registered in Class 43, keeps serving coffee under its name but misses both renewal windows. Its registration is cancelled automatically. A rival files a similar name the next month, and Himal Bean must now file afresh behind that earlier application.

Himal Bean's mistake was a calendar, not the law. A reminder six months ahead, and a file ready before the term ended, would have kept the mark on the register.

Can you renew a mark you never used?

Renewal does not cure non-use. Under Sec. 18C, if a registered mark is not brought into use within one year of registration, the DoI "shall conduct necessary inquiries and cancel" it. That rule runs alongside renewal, not instead of it.

The DoI's renewal checklist also asks for proof that the trademark is in use (ट्रेडमार्क प्रचलनमा रहेको प्रमाण). Keep dated invoices, labels, packaging and adverts that show the mark as registered, class by class.

Is renewal just a form and a fee?

No. The DoI lists its trademark renewal documents on its Industrial Property Section page, and its downloadable renewal checklist adds a few more. Read on 17 October 2026, they ask for the items in the figure below.

Two traps catch owners. If the original certificate is lost, Sec. 24 lets you get a copy from the Department on payment of a fee, so request it well before the term ends.

The second trap is ownership. If the mark was recently transferred to a newly formed company, that company may not yet have the business-renewal or tax-payment records listed, so confirm with the DoI what it will accept.

Can renewal add a class, new goods or a new logo?

No. Renewal continues the registration you already hold, for the same mark and the same goods or services. Under Sec. 18A the government classifies goods and services, and Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for each class. Nepal uses the NICE classification of 45 classes: Classes 1–34 for goods and 35–45 for services.

So a café brand registered in Class 43 cannot add packaged coffee in Class 30 at renewal; it needs a new application.

A redesigned logo is a new mark too, with its own filing and examination, while the old registration protects only the old design. The NICE class finder shows where a new product falls, and our trademark registration service files it.

Does a foreign or Madrid renewal cover Nepal?

No. Sec. 21B says a mark registered in a foreign country "shall not be valid in Nepal" unless it is registered here. Nepal is also missing from the Madrid Protocol's 117 members on WIPO's own table, read on 17 October 2026, so an international registration cannot renew a mark here.

A foreign owner renews at the DoI like anyone else, usually through a Nepal attorney appointed under Sec. 20, the Act's right to act through an attorney. More on this in myths about registering a foreign brand in Nepal.

Keep the Nepal date apart from your home-country calendar. Renewing at home, or through Madrid elsewhere, does not move the Nepal expiry by a single day.

If a mark still shows in a search, is it still registered?

Not necessarily. IP Sewa's database holds 71,842 marks printed in 123 DoI bulletins, from Volume 1, Number 1 (22 January 2006) to Volume 20, Number 8 (16 October 2026). Each record shows when a mark was published, not whether it was later registered, renewed or cancelled.

That matters most for older marks: 27,030 of those entries come from the 62 bulletins dated before 2018, and our data cannot say which are still alive. Find the entry with our trademark search or the application-number lookup, then confirm its status with the DoI, whose register records renewals.

Can a cancelled trademark simply be restored?

Not through renewal. Once Sec. 23B(2) cancels a registration, the route back is a fresh application, with a new filing date, examination, Bulletin publication and a new 90-day opposition window in which others can object.

That takes time. An unopposed trademark 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. Our guide to how long trademark registration takes covers each stage.

Stop marking the brand as registered while you wait. Sec. 18B bars using a mark as a registered trademark without registering it, and Sec. 19 backs that with a fine and confiscation of the goods.

How do you renew a trademark in Nepal correctly?

Work through these steps in order, starting well before the term ends.

1. Find the certificate. Note the registration date, class and registration number for each mark.
2. Work out the dates. Expiry is seven years from registration; the standard window runs 35 days from expiry.
3. Check use and ownership. Gather proof of use, and record any sale under Sec. 21D before you renew.
4. Collect the documents. Follow the DoI's current checklist, including a power of attorney if an agent files.
5. File in the window. Submit the application and fee within the 35 days; use the late window only if you must.
6. Keep the proof. Store the receipt and the endorsed certificate, and diarise the next expiry seven years on.

Our guide to the trademark renewal form explains what goes in the application itself.

Common mistakes: what trips owners up at renewal?

The mistakes below are about records, not law, and each one is easy to catch a few months early.

• Counting seven years from the filing or publication date instead of registration.
• Treating marks in several NICE classes as one renewal; each class is its own registration.
• Assuming a company or tax renewal at another office also renews the trademark.
• Renewing an old logo while the redesigned version on the shelf stays unregistered.
• Leaving a sale unrecorded, so the register still names the seller at renewal time.
• Treating the late window as part of the normal deadline.

In short, what is true about trademark renewal in Nepal?

Seven years from registration, renewal within 35 days of expiry, a six-month late window on a fine, then automatic cancellation. A trademark is renewable without limit, but only by filing: use, reminders and foreign renewals do not do it for you.

If a date is close or already past, act now. Our renewal team can check the file and the deadline.

People also search for

• Trademark renewal in Nepal: when and how
• 10 trademark myths Nepali businesses still believe
• How to register a logo as a trademark in Nepal
• Documents required for trademark registration in Nepal

Not sure when your mark expires, or whether it already has? Contact IP Sewa with the certificate and we will work out where you stand.