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A superscript 'TM' (™), used to indicate a claimed but not necessarily registered trademark.
Also known as: TM symbol, Superscript TM
The ™ symbol signals that the user claims trademark rights in a word, phrase, logo or other brand feature, typically under common-law trademark principles. Unlike ®, it does not require or imply formal registration with a trademark office.
Indicates a claimed trademark in a word, logo or brand feature under common-law rights, without requiring registration with a national trademark office.
Common-law trademark practice varies by jurisdiction; this is a general convention, not a single global statute.
Claims rather than certifies. Anyone may use it beside a name or logo they are using as a trade mark, whether or not it is registered anywhere; it asserts that the user regards the mark as theirs and puts others on notice. That is the opposite of the registered symbol, which may only be used once registration has actually been granted.
Has a sibling for services. American practice uses SM — a service mark — for a mark identifying a service rather than goods, and it works the same way: a claim, not a registration. British practice makes no such distinction in symbol.
United States and United Kingdom · Contexts: Software
Is seen on packaging, in advertising, in the first prominent use of a brand name in a document, on software splash screens and in app stores. Convention marks the first or most prominent occurrence rather than every one, because repeating it in running text is unreadable and confers nothing extra.
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Service mark (SM)
The letters SM in the same superscript position, used in the United States for a mark identifying services rather than goods.
The letters T and M in small superscript, usually placed to the upper right of a word or logo.
Frequently confused; see the comparison page for the legal distinction.
Both belong to the Intellectual property marks system.