A trademark examination report is the Department of Industry's written list of problems with your application under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965. It is an invitation to answer, not a refusal. The deadline is printed on the notice, and it is strict.
Key takeaways
- An examination report sets out the examiner's objections. Most applications that get one still go on to publication.
- Read the date on the notice. Do not rely on a figure you read somewhere else; the report states its own reply period.
- Answer every ground separately. Reports often raise several, and a partial reply reads as no reply.
- Clearing examination only gets you to publication. A third party then has 90 days to oppose.
- Amending is sometimes better than arguing. A fresh application would lose your original filing date, which matters in a first-to-file system.
What is a trademark examination report?
It is the DoI's formal notice after an examiner has looked at your application. Elsewhere the same document is called an office action.
The report names what is wrong — a conflicting earlier mark, a weak name, the wrong class, a missing document — and asks you to respond before the application can move on.
Sec. 18 of the Act is the hook. It lets the DoI inquire into an application and gives the applicant an opportunity to defend it. The Act is titled the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 in the official English text.
Is an examination report a refusal?
No. A refusal is a decision; a report is a question. The examiner is telling you what stands in the way and giving you a chance to remove it.
Plenty of reports concern paperwork rather than the brand: a missing authority, an unclear label, goods wording that does not match the class.
What turns a report into a refusal is usually silence, not the objection itself.
How long do you have to reply?
As long as the notice says. This is the one point where you should trust the document in your hand over anything on the internet, including this page.
Several different 35-day periods exist in Nepali industrial-property practice — the design and patent objection windows, the renewal window, and the window for an appeal to the High Court. That is very likely why "35 days" gets repeated as the reply period for examination reports.
We cannot confirm it as a fixed rule for every report. Read the date on your own notice, diary it the day it arrives, and confirm it with the Department of Industry or your agent if the wording is unclear.
Why does the DoI raise objections at all?
Because publication is a public act. Once a mark appears in the Industrial Property Bulletin, the register is telling the market that this sign is claimed by this owner.
Examination is the filter before that. The Sec. 18 proviso bars a mark already registered to another person, one that damages another mark's goodwill, or one that harms a person's or institution's reputation, public morality or the national interest.
Nepal's first-to-file rule shapes what the examiner compares. Earlier applications and registrations count; how long you have traded under the name does not, by itself.
What kinds of objection appear?
Most reports fall into five families. Knowing which one you are facing tells you what kind of answer will work, because the evidence that fixes a document defect does nothing for a similarity objection.
| Objection | What the examiner is asking | What usually answers it |
|---|---|---|
| A similar earlier mark | Could buyers confuse the two, given the marks and the goods? | A comparison of owners, dates, goods, sound, look and overall impression |
| Weak or descriptive mark | Does the name identify a source, or just describe the product? | The distinctive element, or evidence the public already links the name to you |
| Public interest or reputation | Does the sign harm morality, the national interest or someone's standing? | An explanation of the real meaning, or removal of the problem element |
| Wrong class or goods wording | Do the listed goods match the class and the business? | Corrected wording, or a separate application, since Sec. 18A takes one class each |
| Formal document defect | Is an authority, label or company record missing or defective? | The document, supplied in the required form and clearly identified |
A different class does not automatically defeat a similarity objection. Related goods and services still count, and why applications get rejected goes deeper into that.
How do you actually write the reply?
Like a schedule, not a letter. The examiner has to be able to see, ground by ground, that each point has been dealt with.
Start by locating your own record. The application-number lookup finds a published mark by its number, though it does not replace the formal file.
- Head it with the file details. Application number, applicant, mark and class, exactly as they appear on the report.
- Quote or summarise each objection in turn. Then answer it directly underneath, before moving to the next one.
- Pull the cited mark. Compare owner, filing date, goods, class, spelling, sound and meaning. Our free trademark search covers marks published in DoI bulletins; it shows published marks, not registration status.
- Attach only what you will explain. Each document should have a line saying which ground it answers.
- Fix defects rather than arguing about them. A missing authority is supplied, not debated.
- File through the proper channel and keep the stamped acknowledgment, with every page accounted for.
What evidence helps, and what does not?
Evidence that shows the market treats your name as yours helps a distinctiveness objection: dated packaging, invoices, advertising, a long trading history.
The same bundle does very little against an earlier filing. If someone else filed first, proof that you have been busy is not the point.
Statements without documents help least of all. "Our brand is well known" is an assertion; a dated invoice is a fact.
Should you argue, amend, or start again?
That is the real decision, and it should be made before anything is drafted. Arguing keeps the filing date; amending usually keeps it too; refiling loses it.
Argue where the record supports you — different owners, different goods, a genuinely different overall impression.
Amend where the objection identifies something real: a missing document, goods wording that overreaches, an element of the label that causes the problem.
Can you change the mark after a report?
Only within limits. Small corrections may be accepted, but a change that turns the application into a materially different mark is a new mark.
Narrowing the goods or the class wording is usually the safer lever. It keeps the same sign and the same date while removing the overlap the examiner objected to.
Before changing anything on the label, check whether the amendment actually answers the ground. An unnecessary change can create a fresh objection, especially where the objection is about the artwork rather than the words — see registering a logo as a trademark.
What happens if you miss the deadline?
The application is at serious risk. Depending on the file, it may be treated as abandoned or simply refused.
Silence does not preserve anything. If the date has already passed, raise it with the DoI or your agent immediately rather than waiting for a letter.
A fresh application is sometimes the only route left, and it carries a later date. In a first-to-file system that gap is exactly where a competitor's filing can land.
How is an examination report different from opposition?
Different author, different stage, different clock. The report comes from the DoI before publication; an opposition comes from another business after it.
The reply period for the report is on the notice. Publication itself happens under Sec. 21A, and the trademark opposition window is 90 days from publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin; the deadline the Department states prevails.
One more thing worth knowing: the shorter 35-day objection window belongs to industrial designs (from publication) and patents (from seeing or copying the file), not trademarks. The Act is published by the Nepal Law Commission if you want to read it.
Does an objection delay registration?
Usually yes, by however long the exchange takes. An unopposed trademark in Nepal typically runs about 12 to 14 months from filing to certificate, with 6 to 8 months at the smooth end.
IP Sewa's own bulletin records put the median filing-to-publication gap at about 3.5 months in recent issues, but about one in six marks waits more than two years.
Hearings, further questions and document corrections each add their own time. How long registration takes sets out the stages.
What does a Nepali objection look like?
Imagine a Kathmandu food business files the word mark "Himalayan Harvest" for packaged spices, and the DoI cites an earlier similar mark for related food products. This is an illustration, not a real case.
The weak reply says the logos use different colours. The examiner cited the words, not the colours.
The stronger reply compares the two marks as a whole, the exact goods on each specification, the filing dates and the owners, and says plainly why a buyer in a Nepali shop would not connect them.
If the same business also runs a café under that name, that is a separate class and a separate application — not an answer to this objection.
How do you avoid a report in the first place?
Search before you file, in the class you are filing and any related one. Most similarity objections were visible on the register before the application was made. How to search the Nepali register covers the method.
Choose a name with something distinctive in it. Descriptive names attract objections and are harder to enforce even when they get through.
Get the class and the goods wording right at the start using the NICE class finder, and have the documents complete on day one. Our trademark search and clearance team does this work before a filing goes in.
Common mistakes
- Treating the report as a rejection. It is a stage in the process, and most of them are answerable.
- Assuming a deadline you read elsewhere. The notice carries its own date; that is the one that binds you.
- Answering one ground. A reply that ignores two of three objections has not replied.
- Relying on foreign law. Arguments that work in another register have no weight at the DoI.
- Sending assertions without documents. "Everyone knows our brand" is not evidence.
- Changing the mark casually. A material change can create a new objection and cost you the date.
- Thinking publication is the finish line. The 90-day opposition window comes next, and opposition and enforcement is a different fight.
In short
An examination report is the DoI telling you what stands between your application and publication. Read the date first, then list every ground and answer each one on its own terms.
Use documents rather than adjectives, fix real defects instead of defending them, and keep the filing date wherever you can.
If the reply succeeds the mark goes to the Industrial Property Bulletin and the 90-day opposition clock starts. For the whole route, see the trademark application process in Nepal, or hand the file to our trademark registration team.
People also search for
- Why are trademark applications rejected in Nepal?
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- How does a patent examination report differ?
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If a report has landed on your desk, the useful first hour is spent on the deadline and the cited mark, not on drafting. Send us the notice and the application number and our team will tell you what it is actually asking — contact us to get it reviewed.
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