Trademarks are always on the mind, The Trademark of a business is the first advertisement, therefore you should be careful with how you go about it, because you’re trying to send a message. But not a lot of people know what the differences between the TM symbol and the circle R and the SM
I’ll explain the differences between these three and which one you should be using and when to use each of them in your business Logo.
TM symbol, the circled R symbol and the SM superscript. symbol, there are differences between these three that you should definitely know about.
You can not go around contradicting yourself. As a proper and progressional venture, you have to know when to use TM, R or SM in your logo, reason because you’re trying to convey a message to consumers/clients. If you use the wrong symbol in your Logo you may cause harm to your business, it’s actually illegal to use one of these symbols when you actually don’t have a registered trademark.
Let’s start with the TM symbol. If you do not and I repeat do not have a registered trademark, then you are going to use the T m. You see the TM is simply a placeholder. It tells people guess what I am using this name. And I am claiming a right to use this name, even if it’s common law trademark rights, and It implies and notifies your intension of the name and Logo even though it’s not a registered trademark.
So if you want to be using the TM symbol for your business Logo, it means you do not have a registered trademark. But you do plan to register at some point, or you are using the name in commerce.
Now the second one is a circled “R” this is the one that everybody has seen. This simply means it is a registered trademark, there is just no doubt about it. It is a registered Business. I’ve seen some people use the circled R when they do not have a registered trademark certificate. It is illegal !.
using the circle R is if you in fact, have a registered trademark certificate, It is so important that you only use the circled R when you have a registered trademark certificate.
And using a TM on your logo or business Trademark while your business is registered will harm your business because people will see your business as an amateur one and perhaps, unreliable.
if you put an SM superscript symbol next to your name, that means you also have a registered trademark, but it means that you are a service based business. So if you’re a service based business with a registered trademark thing, you are going to use the SM superscript symbol instead of the circle R.
Every business aspires to have SM or circled R in their business Logo because it means that you have ultimate protection with a trademark registration.