Nepal has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

It is reported that Nepal lacks sufficient resources to maintain qualified patent examiners, and enforcement officials are not adequately trained. In addition, it is reported that insufficient fines do not deter patent infringement.

Nepal lacks a comprehensive data protection regime. Nevertheless, the Individual Privacy Act 2075 (वैयक्तिक गोपनीयता सम्बन्धी ऐन, २०७५ ) enforces the constitutional right to privacy, incorporating provisions on the collection, storage, and disclosure of data, and mandates individual consent prior to the collection of personal information. Privacy in Nepal is further governed by the Individual Privacy Regulation 2077 (2020), which regulates the implementation of the Privacy Act, and the Data Act 2079 (2022), which regulates the generation, management, storage, and publication of data, delineating the responsibilities of data controllers, producers, and users.

Nepal is not a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Nepal has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows the fair use model, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. Art. 17 of the Copyright Act explicitly adopts the fair use model, allowing limited portions of a published work to be cited without authorisation from the author or copyright holder, provided such use does not prejudice their economic rights. In such cases, the source and author’s name (if indicated) must be appropriately credited. Arts. 18–23 of the Copyright Act outline an additional set of exceptions, which include reproduction for personal use, educational purposes, or use by libraries and archives, as well as reproduction, broadcasting, or communication of works for public information purposes, among others.

It is reported that the protection of intellectual property rights remains a significant challenge in Nepal, as the existing laws and regulations are outdated and not very effective, and their enforcement is inconsistent. This situation is further compounded by difficulties in preventing the sale of digital media.

Nepal has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Nepal has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Nepal lacks a comprehensive regime for the protection of trade secrets. The Industrial Enterprises Act, 2076 (2020) has general provisions that protect intellectual properties, which include trade secrets.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Nepal to deliver telecom services to end users. However, passive infrastructure sharing is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

According to Section 5.6.2 of the Telecommunication Policy, foreign ownership in the telecommunications sector is subject to a maximum equity limit of 80%.

The government owns shares in some telecommunications companies. In particular, Nepal Telecom (NTC) or Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited (NDCL), the incumbent telecommunications operator, is a state-owned company with a state shareholding of approximately 90%.

Nepal does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there is an obligation of accounting separation.

Nepal has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

According to Art. 3 of the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, no industry operated with foreign investment may make foreign investment of profits earned or in any other manner in any sector referred to in the Schedule of the Act. Pursuant to the Schedule Relating to Sub-section (2) of Section 3, foreign investment in consultancy services is subject to a maximum foreign equity limit of 51%. In addition, according to the Schedule, foreign investment in both computer training services and accounting, engineering, and legal consultancy is prohibited.