Registered trademark symbol

{{Short description|Typographical symbol (®)}}

{{Other uses|Trademark (disambiguation)}}

{{distinguish|text=the character Ⓡ (see Enclosed Alphanumerics) or {{char|™}} (the trademark symbol) or {{char|©}} (the copyright symbol) or {{char|℠}} (the service mark symbol) }}

{{Infobox symbol

|mark=®

|unicode= {{unichar|00AE|Registered sign|html=}}

|different from = {{unichar|24C7|Circled latin capital letter R| nlink=Enclosed Alphanumerics}}

|see also = {{unichar|2122|trade mark sign|nlink=Trademark symbol}}
{{unichar|2120|Service mark|nlink=Service mark}}

}}

The registered trademark symbol, {{char|®}}, 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 words legally registered or established by use as representing a company, product or service.For example, {{cite web| url= https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office | title= Intellectual property office | publisher = Government of the United Kingdom | access-date= 5 June 2020}}{{cite web|title=15 U.S.C. 1111|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1111|access-date=15 December 2005}}

Unregistered trademarks can instead be marked with the trademark symbol, {{char|™}}, while unregistered service marks are marked with the service mark symbol, {{char|℠}}. The proper manner to display these symbols is immediately following the mark; the symbol is commonly in superscript style, but that is not legally required. In many jurisdictions, only registered trademarks confer easily defended legal rights.For example {{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark/unregistered-trade-marks |title=Unregistered Trade Marks |publisher=Government of the United Kingdom |access-date=5 June 2020}}

In the US, the registered trademark symbol was originally introduced in the Trademark Act of 1946.{{Cite web |title=The Origin of the ® Symbol: How the Lanham Act of 1946 Shaped Trademark History |url=https://justprotected.com/blog/registered-trademark-symbol-history}}

Because the symbol is not commonly available on typewriters (or ASCII), it was common to approximate it with "{{tt|(r)}}"{{cite web| title= PSF Trademark Usage Policy. |url= https://www.python.org/psf/trademarks/ | quote = The first or most prominent mention of a Python trademark should be immediately followed by a symbol for registered trademark: "®" or "(r)".}} or "{{tt|(R)}}"{{efn|Most word processors will autocorrect these two sequences to a proper {{char|®}} symbol.}} It is also legal in the US to use the text "Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office" or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off."{{cite web |first=Gregory H. |last=Guillot. |title=A Guide to Proper Trademark Use. 1995–2007. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611101619/http://www.ggmark.com:80/guide.html |archive-date=June 11, 2019 |url=http://www.ggmark.com/guide.html}}