The trademark symbol is a

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

to indicate that the preceding mark is a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

, specifically an

unregistered trademark An unregistered trademark or common law trademark is an enforceable mark created by a business or individual to signify or distinguish a product or service. It is legally different from a registered trademark granted by statute. As with registere ...

. It complements the

registered trademark symbol The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or word ...

which is reserved for trademarks registered with an appropriate government agency. In Canada, an equivalent symbol, (U+1F16A) is used in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Canada also has an

Official mark An official mark (sometimes denoted by the symbols OM, M, or Ⓜ) is a form of intellectual property which exists in Canada under section 9 of the Trade-marks Act, which allows for the protection of names and designs used by Canadian public authorit ...

symbol, , to indicate that a name or design used by Canadian public authorities is protected. Some German publications, especially dictionaries, also use a grapheme, (U+1F12E), 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

, , and in some jurisdictions it is unlawful or illegal to use the registered trademark symbol with a mark that has not been registered. The

service mark symbol The service mark symbol (the letters in small capitals and superscript style), is a symbol used in the United States and some other jurisdictions to provide notice that the preceding mark is a service mark. This symbol may be used for servi ...

, , is used to indicate the assertion of a

service mark A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in the United States and several other countries to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. ...

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

Keyboard entry

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

: (on the numeric keypad) **

US international QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden type ...

keyboard setting: *

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

: (or or or on certain layouts) *

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

(and similar): *

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfac ...

(and Linux): **

UK Extended QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard: . (AltGr and *) *

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

: or *

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

References

{{navbox punctuation United States trademark law Punctuation Typographical symbols

Use

Keyboard entry

See also

References