Trademark symbol (™)
The trademark symbol (™) is the small raised letters TM placed after a name, logo or slogan to show that someone claims it as a trademark. In the US it can be used whether or not the mark is registered; the ® is for registered marks.
How to read it
The US Patent and Trademark Office says a business can use “TM” for goods or “SM” for services even if it hasn’t filed an application to register the mark, and that the symbol lets consumers and competitors know the trademark is being claimed. Once a mark is registered with the USPTO, the registered trademark symbol ® is used with it instead. Unicode encodes ™ as U+2122 TRADE MARK SIGN, a superscript T and M, and the service mark sign ℠ as U+2120. This page describes the marks and is not legal advice.
Also searched as: service mark symbol, ℠, ™, tm symbol, trademark symbol meaning, trademark symbol symbol, what does tm mean.
TM and SM
SM is the same claim for services rather than goods. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a service mark as one “used in the sale or advertising of services to identify the services and distinguish them from the services of others”, abbreviated SM, beside the trademark, abbreviated TM.
How publishers treat it
Butterick’s Practical Typography sets ™ as a superscript with no space before it, and notes that someone reading “© 2026 MegaCorp™” aloud would pronounce the © but not the ™. The Guardian’s style guide prefers a generic word to a trademark unless there is a very good reason, writing ballpoint pen rather than Biro and photocopy rather than Xerox.
More punctuation and typographic symbols
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers.
Sources
- Letterlike Symbols: Range 2100–214F (code chart), The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0, Unicode Consortium, Letterlike Symbols, 2120 and 2122
- C1 Controls and Latin-1 Supplement (code chart, Range 0080–00FF), The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0, Unicode Consortium, Latin-1 Supplement, 00AE
- What is a trademark?, USPTO, Trademark basics, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Using the trademark symbols TM, SM, and ®
- trademark (American Heritage Dictionary entry), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, HarperCollins Publishers, trademark, n., sense 1
- service mark (American Heritage Dictionary entry), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, HarperCollins Publishers, service mark, n.
- Trademark & copyright symbols, Matthew Butterick, Butterick’s Practical Typography, Matthew Butterick, Trademark & copyright symbols
- Guardian and Observer style guide: T, Guardian and Observer style guide, Guardian News & Media, trademarks (TM)
Last reviewed October 1, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research