TM vs SM vs ®: What Each Trademark Symbol Means and How to Type It

™ means you claim a word, logo or slogan as your trademark for goods. ℠ means the same thing for services. You can use either one today, with no filing at all. ® means the mark is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and you may use it only after the registration issues, and only for the goods or services the registration lists.

How to type ™, ℠ and ®

Two details trip people up. The Mac shortcuts come from Microsoft's Word for Mac documentation and work on the standard U.S. keyboard layout; on another layout, Apple's Keyboard Viewer shows what the Option key produces. And Ⓡ, a circled capital R that some fonts offer, is a different character (U+24C7). The registration symbol is ® (U+00AE).

™ and ℠: use them now, no filing needed

The USPTO says it plainly: "You can use "TM" for goods or "SM" for services even if you haven't filed an application to register your trademark." The symbol "lets consumers and competitors know you're claiming the trademark as yours." It is not an official notice, and the USPTO's examination manual says these symbols "are not official or statutory symbols of federal registration."

You own a trademark by using it in commerce; registration is optional. In the USPTO's words, "You become a trademark owner as soon as you start using your trademark with your goods or services," but "a registered trademark provides broader rights and protections than an unregistered one." Before you put ™ on a name, a knockout search shows whether someone has already registered or applied for a similar mark.

®: only after registration, and only for what is registered

The rule for ® has three parts, all from the USPTO's Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP § 906):

1. Not while your application is pending. "Even if an application is pending, the registration symbol may not be used until the mark is registered." Approval for publication is not registration either.
2. Not for a state registration. "Registration in a state of the United States does not entitle a person to use the federal registration notice."
3. Only for the listed goods or services. "The registration symbol should be used only on or in connection with the goods/services/collective membership organization listed in the registration."

A real example shows why the third rule matters. The application for NIKE for footwear was filed on March 23, 1981 (serial number 73302504) and became Registration No. 1,214,930 on November 2, 1982. NIKE, Inc. owns it today. The serial number arrives when you file; the registration number arrives only if the mark registers, and ® belongs to the second one. Meanwhile, a Swedish company, Rehobot Hydraulics AB, owns a separate registration for NIKE for hydraulic jacks and pumps (Registration No. 668,306, registered in 1958). Each registration covers its own goods. The same word, registered for footwear, says nothing about jacks.

The same logic applies to the mark itself. In a 2007 decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the USPTO's internal court, looked at Barbara's Bakery, which had registered BARBARA'S with a design and put ® next to the plain word. The Board accepted it as an honest mistake, but the lesson stands: ® goes on the mark as it was registered.

Why ® is worth using

Using ® is optional; the statute says a registrant "may" give notice. Skipping it has a cost. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1111, a registered owner who does not give notice cannot recover the infringer's profits or damages unless the infringer had actual notice of the registration (a court can still order the infringer to stop): "no profits and no damages shall be recovered under the provisions of this chapter unless the defendant had actual notice of the registration." The statute accepts three forms of notice: the words "Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," the abbreviation "Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.," or ®.

Placement is flexible. The USPTO says you "may use the registration symbol anywhere around the trademark, although most trademark owners use the symbol in a superscript or subscript manner to the right of the trademark." Superscript is a habit, not a legal rule. One place a symbol must not go is the drawing of the mark you file with the USPTO, which "may not include extraneous matter such as the letters "TM," "SM," the copyright notice ©, or the federal registration notice ®."

What happens if you misuse ®

The USPTO's manual treats honest mistakes and deliberate deception differently. It notes that "misunderstandings about use of federal registration symbols are more frequent than occurrences of actual fraudulent intent," and lists the usual causes: confusing ® with the copyright notice, a printer working without clear instructions, assuming a state or foreign registration counts, and putting ® on goods the registration does not cover. But misuse "that is deliberate and intends to deceive or mislead the public or the USPTO is fraud."

The cases show where the line falls:

• Keeping ® after a warning is the danger. In Copelands' Enterprises, Inc. v. CNV, Inc., 945 F.2d 1563 (Fed. Cir. 1991), CNV had used ® on its unregistered VUARNET mark for sunglasses. The Federal Circuit, the appeals court above the TTAB, said misuse "if done with intent to deceive" is a ground for denying registration, pointed to CNV "continuing to use it after being specifically notified of the impropriety of such use," and sent the case back for trial on CNV's intent.
• Stopping promptly helps. In Brown Shoe Co. v. Robbins (TTAB 2009), an applicant who used ® on PALOMITA because of a Mexican registration was found not to have committed fraud, in part because she stopped once the problem was raised.
• Courts can refuse to help you. In Urecal Corp. v. Masters, 413 F. Supp. 873 (N.D. Ill. 1976), the plaintiff's mark carried ® but had never been registered. The court applied the "clean hands" doctrine, which denies relief to a party that acted improperly, and entered judgment for the defendant.
• Proven fraud costs the registration. In In re Empire Technology Development LLC (TTAB 2017), the Board found an applicant's use of ® next to the unregistered words "coffee flour" "improper," and said that when fraudulent misuse "is conclusively established, the fraud defeats an applicant's right to a registration." The application failed anyway, because "coffee flour" was held to be the generic name for the goods.

Outside the United States, misuse can carry its own penalties. In the United Kingdom, falsely representing a mark as registered is a criminal offense under section 95 of the Trade Marks Act 1994, punishable in England and Wales by a fine of up to £1,000. Australia's Trade Marks Act 1995 (section 151) sets a penalty of 60 penalty units. On August 1, 2024, India replaced its criminal penalty (up to three years' imprisonment, a fine, or both) with a monetary penalty of 0.5% of turnover or 5 lakh rupees, whichever is less.

The common mistakes, in one list

• Waiting to use ™ until you file. You do not need to.
• Switching to ® when you file, or when the examiner approves the mark. Wait for the registration certificate.
• Using ® because of a state registration. It is the federal notice only.
• Putting ® on every product sold under the name. Only the goods or services the registration lists.
• Putting ® on the word when you registered the logo. The symbol follows the mark as registered.

If you are not sure what your registration covers, the registration itself lists the goods and services, and you can look it up on any USPTO status page or with our free trademark search. For what happens between filing and registration, see our guide to the trademark examination process.

FAQ

What does the TM symbol mean?

™ means the owner claims the word, logo or slogan as a trademark for its goods. It requires no filing or registration.

How do I type the TM symbol?

On a Mac, press Option+2. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0153 on the numeric keypad, or press Ctrl+Alt+T in Microsoft Word. In HTML, use ™.

Can I use ® after I file my application?

No. You can use ® only after the USPTO registers the mark, and only for the goods or services listed in the registration. Until then, use ™ or ℠.

Sources

• 15 U.S.C. § 1111 (notice of registration): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title15/html/USCODE-2023-title15-chap22-subchapIII-sec1111.htm
• USPTO, "What is a trademark?": https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/what-trademark
• USPTO, Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, §§ 906–906.04: https://tmep.uspto.gov/RDMS/TMEP/print?version=current&href=TMEP-900d1e1.html and § 807.02: https://tmep.uspto.gov/RDMS/TMEP/print?version=current&href=TMEP-800d1e1.html
• Copelands' Enterprises, Inc. v. CNV, Inc., 945 F.2d 1563 (Fed. Cir. 1991): https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/569235/copelands-enterprises-inc-dba-copelands-sports-v-cnv-inc/
• Brown Shoe Co. v. Robbins, Opposition No. 91176273 (TTAB May 13, 2009): https://ttab-reading-room.uspto.gov/cms/rest/legal-proceeding/91176273/decision/OPP_29.pdf
• Barbara's Bakery, Inc. v. Landesman, Opposition No. 91157982 (TTAB Jan. 23, 2007): https://ttab-reading-room.uspto.gov/cms/rest/legal-proceeding/91157982/decision/OPP_32.pdf
• Urecal Corp. v. Masters, 413 F. Supp. 873 (N.D. Ill. 1976): https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1660782/urecal-corp-v-masters/
• In re Empire Technology Development LLC, 123 USPQ2d 1544 (TTAB 2017): https://ttab-reading-room.uspto.gov/cms/rest/legal-proceeding/85876688/decision/EXA_22.pdf
• UK Trade Marks Act 1994, s. 95: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/26/section/95 and Sentencing Act 2020, s. 122: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/17/section/122
• Australia Trade Marks Act 1995, s. 151: https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A04969/latest/text
• India Trade Marks Act 1999, s. 107, as amended by the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 (bill as passed: https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/2022/Jan%20vishwas%20bill%20as%20passed%20by%20LS.pdf), in force August 1, 2024 (Gazette notification S.O. 2972(E): https://ipindia.gov.in/storage/uploads/docs-operator/f6e5b459-3b00-4eb5-ba3b-374fd2f87db7.pdf)
• Unicode character data: https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt
• Microsoft Support, Word keyboard shortcuts: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-word-95ef89dd-7142-4b50-afb2-f762f663ceb2 and Alt codes for symbols: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/insert-ascii-or-unicode-latin-based-symbols-and-characters-d13f58d3-7bcb-44a7-a4d5-972ee12e50e0
• Apple Support, Character Viewer and text replacements: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-emoji-and-symbols-on-mac-mchlp1560/mac and https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-text-replacements-iph6d01d862/ios
• USPTO register records: NIKE, serial 73302504, Reg. No. 1,214,930; NIKE (Rehobot Hydraulics AB), serial 72034404, Reg. No. 668,306