Trademark Symbol ™, Registered ® and Copyright ©: How to Type Them

The trademark symbol ™ marks a brand name or logo that is claimed as a trademark but not registered, the registered trademark symbol ® marks one that has been registered with a trademark office, and the copyright symbol © marks a creative work whose copyright is claimed. None of the three has its own key, so type them with Alt + 0153, Alt + 0174, and Alt + 0169 on Windows, Option + 2, Option + R, and Option + G on a Mac, or by letting Word and Google Docs autocorrect (tm), (r), and (c). In HTML they are ™, ®, and ©, and in LaTeX \texttrademark, \textregistered, and \copyright.

This guide lists the symbols and their relatives with Unicode code points, explains what each one means and when it is appropriate to use (in general terms, not as legal advice), and covers how to type them on every platform, including the LaTeX commands and a compilable example.

Copy and Paste the Trademark, Registered, and Copyright Symbols

• ™ — trade mark sign (U+2122)
• ® — registered sign (U+00AE)
• © — copyright sign (U+00A9)
• ℠ — service mark sign (U+2120)
• ℗ — sound recording copyright sign (U+2117)
• 🄯 — copyleft symbol (U+1F12F)
• Ⓡ — circled Latin capital letter R, a lookalike that is not the registered sign (U+24C7)
• Ⓒ — circled Latin capital letter C, a lookalike that is not the copyright sign (U+24B8)
• ⓒ — circled Latin small letter C (U+24D2)

Use the first five for real documents. The circled letters in the last three entries are enclosed alphanumerics from a different Unicode block; they look similar in some fonts but are not the legal symbols, will not match in a search, and are not what the Alt codes and entities produce.

What the Three Symbols Mean

™ Trademark

The ™ sign tells the world that you treat a name, logo, slogan, or other mark as identifying your goods. Anyone can use it, immediately and without registering anything, because in most countries trademark rights arise from use in commerce. It is also the sign to use while a registration application is pending. Adding ™ does not create rights on its own, but it puts competitors on notice and helps show the mark was used as a brand rather than as a plain description.

® Registered Trademark

The ® sign means the mark has been registered with the relevant trademark office: the USPTO in the United States, the EUIPO for an EU trade mark, the UK IPO, and so on. Registration is what distinguishes ® from ™. In the United States, using ® on a mark that is not federally registered can be treated as false marking and can weaken a later infringement claim, and other jurisdictions have similar rules, so the safe practice is to switch from ™ to ® only once the certificate has issued and only in territories where the mark is registered. The sign is conventionally placed as a superscript at the upper right of the mark, once at the first or most prominent use on a page rather than at every mention.

© Copyright

The © sign marks a work protected by copyright: text, software, photographs, music scores, diagrams, and so on. Under the Berne Convention, which the United States joined in 1989, copyright exists automatically from the moment a work is fixed, so the notice is optional in almost every country. It is still worth adding, because a correct notice defeats a defendant's claim of "innocent infringement" in the US and makes the owner easy to find. The standard form is the symbol, the year of first publication, and the owner's name: © 2026 Example Ltd. "All rights reserved" is a leftover from the Buenos Aires Convention and is no longer required, though it is harmless.

℠ and ℗

The service mark sign ℠ is the ™ equivalent for services rather than goods (a courier company, a streaming platform); after registration it becomes ® like any other mark. The ℗ sign, a circled P for "phonogram," is the copyright notice specific to sound recordings, which are protected separately from the underlying composition. A record sleeve therefore often carries both: © for the artwork and liner notes, ℗ for the recording itself. This section describes common conventions only; consult a trademark or copyright professional for your own situation.

How to Type ™, ®, and ©

Windows: Hold Alt and type the four-digit code on the numeric keypad: 0153 for ™, 0174 for ®, 0169 for ©. The leading zero is required; Alt + 169 without it gives ® on some systems and a different character on others, so always type all four digits. On a laptop without a keypad, use Word's Alt + X method (type 2122, 00AE, or 00A9, then press Alt + X), the emoji panel's Symbols tab (Windows key + .), or the Character Map application.

Mac: Option + 2 produces ™, Option + R produces ®, and Option + G produces ©, on the US and most other layouts. For ℠ and ℗, open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space and search "service mark" or "sound recording."

iPhone and Android: The letter keyboard has none of them. On iOS, switch to the emoji keyboard and look in the Symbols category, where ™, ®, and © appear as text-style characters, or set up a Text Replacement such as "(tm)" → ™ under Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement. On Android, Gboard's second symbols page (?123 then =\<) contains ™, ®, and ©, and the same characters are in the emoji panel.

Word and Google Docs: Both convert (c), (r), and (tm) to ©, ®, and ™ as you type, through AutoCorrect in Word and Preferences → Substitutions in Google Docs. Word on Windows also has Ctrl + Alt + C, Ctrl + Alt + R, and Ctrl + Alt + T. If you actually want the parentheses, press Ctrl + Z immediately after the substitution and the letters come back. Both programs let you select the symbol and raise it with the superscript button, which is the usual typographic treatment for ® and ™ after a brand name; © stays on the baseline.

HTML: Use ™, ®, and ©, or the numeric forms ™, ®, and ©. For a superscript trademark wrap it as <sup>&trade;</sup> only if your font does not already raise it; ™ is designed as a superscript glyph, while ® and © sit on the baseline at x-height. CSS font-variant-position: super is the cleaner way to raise ® without changing the markup.

™, ®, and © in LaTeX

The LaTeX kernel provides \copyright, which works in both text and math mode, along with \texttrademark, \textregistered, and \textcopyright in text mode. These three came from the textcomp package and were merged into the kernel in 2020, so \usepackage{textcomp} is only needed on an older installation, and the same is true of \textservicemark (℠), \textcircledP (℗), and \textcopyleft. The glyphs follow the TS1 encoding conventions: \texttrademark is already drawn at superscript size and position, so it needs no \textsuperscript, while \textregistered is a full-size circled R that many house styles raise with \textsuperscript{\textregistered}. If a symbol is missing from your font, \textcircled{c} and \textcircled{P} draw a circle around a letter as a fallback that works in any font.

Like other text symbols, these commands swallow the space that follows them, so write Octree\texttrademark{} is with empty braces or the next word runs into the symbol. The following document compiles with any current TeX distribution:

1\documentclass{article}
2\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
3\begin{document}
4Octree\texttrademark{} is a product name; Acme\textregistered{} is registered.
5
6\copyright{} 2026 Example Ltd. All rights reserved.
7
8Text-mode copyright: \textcopyright{} 2026, and a circled c alternative: \textcircled{c} 2026.
9
10Service mark: Fast Delivery\textservicemark{}; sound recording: \textcircledP{} 2026.
11
12Superscript forms: Brand\textsuperscript{\textregistered} and Brand\textsuperscript{\textcopyright}.
13
14Footer: \textcopyright{} 2026 Example Ltd.\ \textbar\ Octree\texttrademark{} and Acme\textregistered{} are trademarks of their owners.
15\end{document}
Copy

For a copyright line on a title page, \copyright~\the\year~Your Name ties the symbol to the year with a non-breaking space and updates the year automatically. In documents that mention a brand often, define \newcommand{\Octree}{Octree\texttrademark{}} once and use \Octree everywhere; changing the mark to ® after registration is then a one-line edit. Company names also tend to contain the ampersand, which LaTeX reserves; see https://www.useoctree.com/blog/ampersand-and-symbol-meaning-how-to-type, and the full list of reserved characters at https://www.useoctree.com/learn/special-characters.

Related Symbols

Section, pilcrow, and dagger signs appear in the same legal footers and contract text as ©, ®, and ™, and they have kernel commands too. If you need a currency sign in the same document, the dollar guide at https://www.useoctree.com/blog/dollar-sign-symbol-latex-currency-how-to-type explains why a bare $ must be escaped, and the comparison signs that behave strangely in text mode are at https://www.useoctree.com/blog/greater-than-less-than-symbols-guide.

FAQ

How do I type the trademark symbol?

Windows: hold Alt and type 0153 on the numeric keypad. Mac: Option + 2. Word and Google Docs: type (tm) and let autocorrect replace it. HTML: ™. LaTeX: \texttrademark. The symbol is already superscript-sized, so it needs no extra formatting.

What is the difference between ™ and ®?

™ claims a trademark without any registration and can be used by anyone from the first day a brand is used. ® states that the mark is registered with a trademark office and should only be used once registration has been granted, in the countries where it was granted. Both are placed after the mark, usually as a superscript.

Do I need the © symbol to have copyright?

No. In every country that follows the Berne Convention, including the US since 1989, copyright exists automatically when the work is created. The notice © year name is still useful because it identifies the owner and removes an "innocent infringement" defence in US law.

What is the Alt code for the copyright symbol?

Alt + 0169 on Windows, typed on the numeric keypad with Num Lock on. The registered symbol is Alt + 0174 and the trademark symbol Alt + 0153. On a Mac the equivalents are Option + G, Option + R, and Option + 2.

How do I put a trademark symbol in LaTeX?

Use \texttrademark in text mode, \textregistered for ®, and \copyright or \textcopyright for ©. Add empty braces before a space (Brand\texttrademark{} is). On a TeX installation older than 2020, load \usepackage{textcomp} first.

Marking Your Work Cleanly

Use ™ while a mark is unregistered, switch to ® after registration, and put a © notice with the year and owner on anything you publish. Octree, the AI LaTeX editor at https://www.useoctree.com, autocompletes \texttrademark, \textregistered, and \copyright and compiles your document instantly, so the symbols land exactly where the brand name does.