Copyright

Copyright protects the original works that define a business, brand, creator, or institution—from literary and artistic works to software, digital content, designs, publications, and other creative assets. Our copyright practice helps clients establish, protect, manage, and enforce their rights in an increasingly digital and content-driven economy.

We provide strategic guidance across the copyright lifecycle, including ownership and entitlement, registration, licensing and commercialization, assignment, infringement, enforcement, and dispute resolution. Our approach combines legal precision with a clear understanding of our clients’ creative and commercial objectives, ensuring that valuable works are not only protected but positioned to generate lasting value.

Whether protecting original content, managing complex rights portfolios, or addressing unauthorized use, we help clients secure their creative assets, safeguard ownership, and maximize the value of their intellectual property.

The Copyright Act, 2059 (2002) and the Copyright Rules, 2061 (2004) are the primary legislation. Section 2(a) protects a broad range of creative work: literature such as books, pamphlets and articles; artistic works including architectural designs, fine art, painting, sculpture, woodcarving, lithography, works of applied art, illustration, maps, plans and three dimensional geographical works; purely academic works including scientific articles and theses; musical works, being musical notation with or without words; dramatic works including drama, dramatic music, dumb show and works prepared for such performance, together with computer programs; and digital content including photographic works and audio and cinematographic works viewable on screen with or without sound.

Under section 5, a work, sound recording, performance or broadcast need not be registered to acquire rights under the Act, and copyright protection extends to any original work regardless of its registration status. Registration is nonetheless recommended, because in a dispute the practical question is not whether copyright exists but whether you can prove authorship, date and scope before a court or the police. A registration certificate, filed early, converts a difficult evidential argument into a documentary one.

Copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights that can be exercised only by the owner or a person duly authorised by the owner. Alongside the economic rights that can be assigned and licensed, the author holds moral rights that are inalienable, so that even where copyright has been assigned to another party the author may still exercise them. That distinction matters in commissioning, publishing, advertising and software agreements, where a well drafted assignment of economic rights will not, by itself, resolve every claim an author can bring.

The economic and moral rights of the author are protected throughout the author's life and, after death, for a further fifty years. Where a work is published anonymously or under a pseudonym, the rights are protected for fifty years from the date of first publication or the date the work is made public, whichever is earlier. Because the term is measured from events rather than from a registration date, we record publication and disclosure facts at the outset for any portfolio we manage.

The filing is made with the application for copyright registration together with a copy of the work; a foreign copyright registration certificate where the work is already registered abroad; a power of attorney where a legal professional acts; for a company applicant, the incorporation document, registration number, date of completion of the work and the country and date of first publication; for an individual, the citizenship certificate of the owner; a notarised agreement with the designer where relevant; documents showing production, reproduction, sale and rental where these exist; a document giving a detailed description of the work; and the prescribed fees.

The Act allows reproduction for educational purposes to facilitate teaching and learning, permits libraries and archives to reproduce works where originals are at risk of loss or destruction so that they can be preserved, and permits reproduction, broadcast and communication for the purpose of informing the public. Separately, any copy that has not been lawfully reproduced cannot be imported into Nepal from a foreign country or any other source, which gives rights holders a border argument alongside the ordinary infringement remedies.

Nepal is party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the TRIPS Agreement and the WIPO Convention. Berne membership means protection is available for works created by nationals of other Convention countries without a local formality, and it is the basis on which we coordinate cross border enforcement with foreign law firms for clients whose works are exploited in several jurisdictions at once.

Nepalese courts have applied the Act in both criminal and compensatory terms. Government v. Yadav Dawadi, a defendant who sold and rented copies of Nepali films, music and songs without the owner's permission was convicted and the seized copies confiscated, although the compensation plea did not survive and the later appeals failed on limitation and on the merits. Government v. Tek Bahadur Dangi, photographic material registered under the Act had been used with pasted logos without authorisation; the court awarded the creator compensation of 30,000 rupees under section 27(2), acquitted an officer who was found to be a mere distributor, and ordered removal of the offending logo, with the appellate court upholding the judgment.

We advise on who actually owns a work and whether the chain of title from employees, contractors and agencies is sound; we register works where registration will carry evidential weight; we draft and negotiate licences for publishing, entertainment properties, software and marketing, including open source questions; and we act on infringement and defend claims through the courts, coordinating with foreign attorneys where enforcement crosses borders. We also help clients keep marketing and content practices compliant as the regulatory landscape changes.