The difference between tm and R (trademark and registered trademark)
What is the difference between TM and the R symbol?
I'm going to tell you, and you're never going to forget again.
TM means trademark.
You can use it right now, today, you can use it on any unregistered trademark. Some people still use another registered trademark because they just haven't updated it. But you can use it even if you don't have a registered trademark. Because in the US, you don't have to have a trademark registration in order to have a trademark. What matters is that you start using that trademark in connection with a product or a service. You are selling something connected to that brand. So that's the TM symbol. You can use it. Use it even if you don't have a registered trademark.
The R in a circle is only for federally registered trademarks.
R is for registered trademark. Not for state-registered trademarks. Just federally registered trademarks. You can actually get in trouble and get fined if you use the circle R in connection with a trademark that's not registered.
Why would you want a registered trademark if you have rights to your trademark, even without a registration?
It's all about the benefits. Okay, so bear with me with this. Everyone knows about innocent until proven guilty, right? We're all familiar with that concept. Let's think about this in the trademark sense.
If you have a registered trademark, you are innocent until proven guilty. In other words, everything in that trademark registration is taken as fact as true. The fact that you own it, the date you started using it, all of that stuff. All the stuff in that application in your trademark registration is presumed to the true and factual. If there's a dispute, the other side has to prove that those things are not true.
Now, if you have an unregistered trademark, it flips. You have to prove that you own it, that you started using it on a certain date, and that you are using it across state lines and in whatever state this opponent is using it. Because the other great thing about you having a registered trademark is that you have protection in all of the United States, not just your state.
So if you stuck with me through that, unregistered, guilty until proven innocent, in other words, you have to prove everything if there's a dispute. If it's registered, innocent until proven guilty. Everything is taken as fact, you don't have to prove anything. The other side has to prove that's not true.