Registered trademark symbol
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Registered trademark symbol | |
The registered trademark symbol (®) is a 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 or product.[1][2] Notwithstanding the symbol doesn't meet the threshold of originality to be protected by copyright because it consists only in a capital letter rounded by a simple geometric shape, in some countries 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 officially registered can instead be 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, and is commonly in superscript style but is not legally required.
Computer usage
The registered trademark character has a standardized representation in most computer systems. It is mapped in Unicode as U+00AE ® REGISTERED SIGN (HTML ®
· ®
).[3] The registered trademark symbol ® is distinct, in computer representation, from the similar character U+24C7 Ⓡ CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R (enclosed R)
Because the ® symbol has not commonly been available 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.[4] 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.,[5] in the U.S.,[2] and the letters RTM in the UK.[1]
Typing character
- Windows Alt code: Alt + 0174 (on numeric keypad).
- Linux: either AltGr + R or Compose key, O, R.
- Mac OS: Option + R.
- US-International keyboard layout and UK-International keyboard layout: AltGr+R.
- Emacs: C-x 8 R.
- HTML:
®
or®
or®
. - LaTeX:
\textregistered
in text mode. - LaTeX:
\circledR
in text or math mode (requires amsfonts package)
Related symbols
- The trademark symbol ™, used for unregistered trademarks
- The service mark symbol ℠, used for unregistered service marks
- The similar copyright symbol, ©
- The similar sound recording copyright symbol, ℗
- The similar Orthodox Union hechsher symbol, featuring a U instead of an R in the circle
See also
- Enclosed R, typographical symbol, one of many enclosed alphanumerics
- United States trademark law § TM vs. ®
References
- 1 2 3 UK IPO, one example of a national trade mark office
- 1 2 "15 U.S.C. 1111". Retrieved 15 October 2012.
- ↑ http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf
- ↑ PSF Trademark Usage Policy. https://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
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to R (registered trademark). |