On World Intellectual Property Day in April 2024, government officials from Nepal acknowledged that the country’s IP enforcement mechanisms are not working as intended.

The Department of Industry, which handles IP matters, “has been awash with trademark, patent and design infringement complaints,” The Kathmandu Post reported. A combination of weak policy enforcement and unstable government have promoted unlawful use, selling or copying of IP owned by others, the newspaper said.

“We have so far received 1,500 complaints regarding trademarks, patents and designs,” said Yagyaraj Koirala, director general of the Department of Industry, said on World Intellectual Property Day. “The number shows people are becoming aware of protecting their rights.”

The newspaper reported that industry insiders say settling infringement-related cases in Nepal can take years or even decades. That, it reported, is because the Department of Industry, which handles infringement cases, is not a fully judicial body, and instead depends on the country’s judicial system, which is notorious for delays.

Koirala, for his part, said that improvements are underway, including a draft law to supersede the existing Patent, Design and Trademark Act of 1965 which, the newspaper reported, is in its final stage, according to Koirala. It also reported that the department has digitized some 113,000 old files related to trademarks, patents and designs, and that the department is in the final stage of developing an IP management system.

Participants at the event said that trademark and patent infringement is worsened by inadequate fines. Under the existing law, offenders can be fined up to NRs100,000 – a paltry US$745.

“During the function, a government official admitted that anyone can pay the fine and [continue] to misuse the trademarks and patents,” the newspaper reported, which has discouraged foreign investors from investing in Nepal.

On the plus side, it was revealed at the event that applications for trademark registration have increased, although patent and design applications have remained low. The department has struggled to handle the applications it has received – of 113,607 trademark applications through April 2024, it has issued only 63,204 trademarks; of 876 patent applications, it had granted only 88, 52 for domestic entities and 36 for foreign entities.

“The registration of patent and design is very disappointing,” said Dik Bahadur Karki, director at the Department of Industry, addressing a function titled IP and SDGs: Building our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity. “The lower number of registrations of patents and designs do not encourage industrialization. But trademark registrations have been increasing during the last four years.”

“Almost 99 percent of intellectual property rights in Nepal involves trademarks. The share of patent and design is only 1 percent,” said Karki.

It is against this backdrop that we bring you Nepal’s IP Experts, a list of 10 key intellectual property lawyers who almost certainly be involved in the future of IP in Nepal.

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Nepal IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS

Nepal’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Nepal, Asia and elsewhere around the world, as well as South Asia-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Nepal’s legal market.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Nepal were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or other requirements for inclusion in the process.

The names of our 10 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.