The registered trademark symbol, designated by ® (a circled R also known as a Racol derived from Registered & Authorised Company Logo), is a symbol used to provide notice that the preceding mark is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office.[1] In some countries, including Hong Kong, it is against the law to use the registered trademark symbol for a mark that is not officially registered in any country.[1] Trademarks not so registered are instead marked with the trademark symbol ™, while unregistered service marks are marked with the service mark symbol ℠. The proper manner to display these symbols is immediately following the mark in superscript style.
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Computer usage
The registered trademark character has a standardized representation in most computer systems. It is mapped in Unicode under position U+00AE.[2] The registered trademark symbol ® is distinct, in computer representation, from the similar enclosed R character (Ⓡ).
Because the ® symbol has long been unavailable on typewriters and ASCII-based computer systems, it has been common to approximate this symbol with the characters (R) or (r); for example, the Python programming language Trademark Usage Policy advocates this usage.[3] However, these forms do not have legal force.[citation needed] Example of legal equivalents are the phrase "Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," which may be abbreviated to "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off.",[4] in the U.S., and the letters "RTM" in the UK.[1]
Typing character
- Windows Alt code: Alt + 0174 (on numeric keypad).
- Mac OS: Option + R.
- Emacs: M-x @ A, or M-x 8 R.
- HTML:
®. - LaTeX: \textcopyright, in math mode use \textsuperscript{\textregistered}.
Related symbols
- The trademark symbol TM, used for unregistered trademarks.
- The similar copyright symbol, ©
- The similar sound recording copyright symbol, featuring a P instead of an R in the circle.
- The similar Orthodox Union hechsher symbol, featuring a U instead of an R in the circle.
References
- ^ a b c UK IPO, one example of a national trade mark office
- ^ http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf
- ^ PSF Trademark Usage Policy. http://www.python.org/psf/trademarks/ "The first or most prominent mention of a Python trademark should be immediately followed by a symbol for registered trademark: "®" or "(r)"."
- ^ Gregory H. Guillot. A Guide to Proper Trademark Use. 1995-2007. http://www.ggmark.com/guide.html
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