Patents
Patents
Nepal is a member of the Paris Convention and of WIPO. It is not a contracting party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty. There is no PCT national phase into Kathmandu. If Nepal matters, it needs its own application at the Department of Industry.
A first filing elsewhere can often support a Paris priority claim into Nepal, provided the Nepali application is still in time. That clock is unforgiving. Foreign counsel and local counsel should treat Nepal as a listed country on the same sheet as any other national filing, not as something that can ride on a PCT automatically.
Where a patent has already been granted abroad, Nepali law also allows a confirmatory route. Whether that is the better path than a fresh national application depends on the foreign grant, the claims, and what the client actually needs to stop or license in Nepal. It is a strategy question, not a formality.
Novelty and the local examination practice should be checked against Nepali statute and Department practice, not assumed to match the EPO or USPTO. Term and renewal also follow local rules — including renewals after grant — so a grant is the start of maintenance, not the end of the file.
The practical advice is simple: decide early whether Nepal is in the filing map, diary the Paris deadline, and instruct local counsel with the specification, claims, and foreign filing details in one pack.
General information only. Patent strategy turns on the invention and the foreign filing history; this note is not an opinion on patentability.