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The trademark symbol ™ is a symbol to indicate that the preceding mark is a trademark, specifically an unregistered trademark. It complements the registered trademark symbol ® which is reserved for trademarks registered with an appropriate government agency.

In Canada, an equivalent marque de commerce symbol, (U+1F16A 🅪 RAISED MC SIGN) is used in Quebec. Canada also has an official mark symbol, ⟨Ⓜ⟩, to indicate that a name or design used by Canadian public authorities is protected. Some German publications, especially dictionaries, also use a Warenzeichen grapheme, (U+1F12E 🄮 CIRCLED WZ), which is informative and independent of the actual protection status of the name.

Use

Use of the trademark symbol indicates an assertion that a word, image, or other sign is a trademark; it does not indicate registration or impart enhanced protections. Registered trademarks are indicated using the registered trademark symbol, ®, and in many jurisdictions it is unlawful or illegal to use the registered trademark symbol with a mark that has not been registered.

The service mark symbol, ℠, is used to indicate the assertion of a service mark (a trademark for the provision of services). The service mark symbol is less commonly used than the trademark sign, especially outside the United States.

In recent years, the trademark symbol has seen use on social media in an ironic fashion, highlighting a concept as if it were important enough to warrant its own trademark, for example, "Official Bisexual Haircut™". This is a non-standard usage of the symbol, which confers no special legal rights.

Keyboard entry

• ChromeOS: Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U 2122
  • UK Extended keyboard: AltGr+⇧ Shift+8. (AltGr and *)
• HTML: ™ or ™
• LaTeX: \texttrademark
• Linux (and similar): Ctrl+⇧ Shift+U 2122 and/or ComposeTM
• macOS: ⌥ Opt+2 (or ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+2 or ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+D or ⌥ Opt+⇧ Shift+T on certain layouts)
• Windows: Alt+0153 (on the numeric keypad)

Non-standard substitutions

The letters ⟨T⟩ and ⟨M⟩ are sometimes seen paired in an attempt to emulate the trademark symbol. Methods include

• (TM), the letters in normal form, enclosed in parentheses
• TM, the letters written in small caps, on the baseline
• , the letters written as superscripts, as in mathematical exponentiation
• ᵀᴹ, using symbols from the Phonetic Extensions block in Unicode

See also

• Trademark law
  • Australian trademark law
  • Canadian trademark law
  • China trademark law
  • United Kingdom trademark law
  • United States trademark law
  • Indian trademark law
  • Japanese trademark law

References

1. "Protecting Your Trademark" (PDF). USPTO. United States Patent & Trademark Office. August 2019. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
2. Pentzlin, Karl (June 11, 2010). "Proposal to encode two Letterlike Symbols for Canadian legal use in the UCS" (PDF). unicode.org. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
3. Pidowich, Mark (July 27, 2011). "Official marks — a uniquely Canadian concept". Smart & Biggar. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
4. Pentzlin, Karl (February 27, 2009). "Proposal to encode a German trademark symbol in the UCS" (PDF). unicode.org. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
5. "Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, Sec. 906.02, Improper Use of Registration Symbol". USPTO. United States Patent & Trademark Service. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
6. "What Do ™ , ® , and © Mean? Decoding Trademark Symbols". Dictionary.com. March 30, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
7. "™️ Trade Mark emoji Meaning". Dictionary.com. May 8, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
8. "Character entity references in HTML 4". w3.org.

• United States trademark law
• Punctuation
• Typographical symbols