Apex Law Chamber

Market Surveillance

Monitoring physical markets, online platforms and new trademark filings so that counterfeits, look-alikes and conflicting marks are found early and acted on with evidence.

Investigators documenting suspected infringing consumer goods

Legal challenges

Infringement rarely announces itself. Counterfeit and look-alike goods appear quietly in local markets, on e-commerce sites and social media, and conflicting trademark applications can be filed without the brand owner noticing. By the time a problem is visible to customers, sales and reputation have often already been lost, and the evidence needed to act may be gone.

How we help

We design and run surveillance programmes suited to the brand and the market, covering physical market checks, online monitoring and trademark watching, and we document what we find so that each case is ready for the right response, from a warning letter to enforcement action.

Apex Law Chamber provides market surveillance for brand owners, manufacturers, importers and distributors who need to know how their products and trademarks are being used, copied or imitated in Nepal.

Effective protection starts with knowing what is in the market. We monitor physical retail and wholesale markets, e-commerce platforms, social media and online marketplaces, and newly filed trademark applications, looking for counterfeit goods, confusingly similar products and packaging, unauthorised sellers, grey-market imports and marks that conflict with our clients’ rights.

What we find is only useful if it can be acted on. We record findings in a form that can be relied on later, including photographs, product samples, purchase records, seller details and online captures, and we preserve evidence before it disappears. Each finding is assessed for its seriousness and commercial impact, so that clients can concentrate their resources where they matter most.

Our Market Surveillance services include

  • Physical market visits, inspections and test purchases
  • Monitoring of e-commerce platforms, social media and online marketplaces
  • Trademark watch on newly published applications, with timely oppositions
  • Identification of counterfeit, look-alike and grey-market goods
  • Tracing of manufacturers, importers, distributors and sellers
  • Evidence gathering, documentation and preservation
  • Periodic surveillance reports with prioritised recommendations
  • Coordination with the relevant authorities where enforcement is required

Surveillance leads naturally into action. Where a finding warrants it, our Enforcement and Customs teams take it forward, whether through C&D letters, platform takedowns, border measures or proceedings, using the evidence already assembled.

Programmes can be one-off market checks, periodic reviews or continuous monitoring, depending on the product, the level of risk and the markets that matter to the client.