An excerpt from the survey we have uploaded in our article The impact of the ® symbol on a company's logo and how it affects a brand's trust, prestige and commercial performance.
This piece we are quoting here is important as a guideline for entrepreneurs, art designers and marketers.
**1 Use the ® symbol only when you have actually registered the mark. Sounds obvious, but it's the #1 rule: Don't be tempted to put ® “because it looks official” if your application hasn't been approved yet. It's illegal and can result in everything from negative publicity to fines in some countries. Until you get a certificate of registration, settle for ™ (in effect it indicates that you believe you have a mark pending). ™ is acceptable pre-registration and will not legally harm you if you use it sincerely (i.e. you have an intention or application). As soon as you receive the official registration, you can change the ™ to ® in any static material you create from now on. If it's digital (e.g., a website), customize it. If it's printed, the world is not lost - just take care in subsequent editions.
**2. Integration into the logo design: Determine from the beginning how and where ™/® will appear in the logo. Optimal placement is considered to be upper right next to the last letter or element of the logo. This location is almost standard and that's where consumers look for it if they search for it. Alternatively (if there is a reason, e.g. design too tall), you can put it right below. Avoid left or above the logo - it looks odd and contrary to convention. Make sure the size of the symbol is quite small so that it does not draw the eye more than the logo itself, but not so small that becomes a smudge. Typically, the height of the “®” (including the circle) is about 1/3 to 1/2 the height of the capital letters of the logo. It should be readable to the naked eye at a normal size, but not screaming. It is advisable to make the symbol the same color as the logo if possible, or a neutral gray/black - do not make it a bold color that stands out. The graphic designers can include it as part of the vector logo file (e.g. in an .EPS) but in a separate layer/group that can be easily activated/deactivated.
**3. Do not consider ™/® as part of the “brand name” for the public. That is, when speaking or writing content for customers, you don't have to say “Acme®” every time. It's enough to put the symbol in the first appearance (e.g. in the title or at the top of a page). After that you can just write Acme. The legal guidelines say that the first or most prominent appearance must have the symbol - it usually covers the obligations. In marketing texts, excessive repetition is tiring. In visual media (video, banners), it is sufficient for the logo with ® to appear once at the end or in the corner. Not every time the name appears in writing, it need not be accompanied - e.g. an advertisement might mention the name both in the image (with ®) and in the tagline (without, because it is already on top). When creating brand guidelines, include this recommendation: “Use the ® symbol only on the first occurrence of the name in each individual material.” That way, you will be consistent in usage and not clutter text with unnecessary symbols.
**4. Footnotes/legal declarations: It is good practice on material such as packaging, brochures, websites to have a small text “Trademarks: X, Y, Z are trademarks of Tade.” This text is usually put in small font in the footer or in a less prominent place. It covers cases where it may not have been aesthetically feasible to display the symbol next to the logo. For example, as mentioned above, many global brands do not put ® in logos in ads, but put such a sentence at the end. If you have other marks (e.g. and a trademarked slogan), you can include them. E.g. “X brand® and Y™ are trademarks of [Company]. All rights reserved.” This not only protects legally, but shows professionalism and full compliance. Don't forget to update these notes if anything changes (e.g. the Y was registered, so it becomes ®, or other countries were added - many multinationals write “registered in the US and other countries” for brevity). In Greece, we can write in Greek: “XX is a registered trademark of company Ψ.” But since materials often travel, the English phrase is internationally understood.
**5. Do not neglect the general trademark usage rules in your communication. The ® alone does not work wonders, you need the correct use of the name in the language: Always use the brand name as an adjective, not as a noun or verb. This means, in writing, for example, say “the PlayStation® console” not “the PlayStation”, “Xerox® products” not “xerox”. If your brand is in danger of becoming a verb (e.g. “skype me”), you may need a subtle campaign like Xerox did. Educate both the audience and your inner people to speak properly. Often the erosion starts from the inside - if your own team never puts the ® in presentations, why should the outside take it seriously? So, make sure the brand culture embraces the trademark. This is more for brand strategists: include some key rules in corporate writing manuals (style guides) about trademarks: when the symbol goes in, how the name is referred to (capitalized, with brand generic term, etc.). That way there will be consistency.
**6. Exception where not using symbols - Social Media & PR Headlines: On social media, usernames and hashtags cannot contain ®. So don't even try to put it in (e.g. your handle will be @BrandName, not @BrandName® - the latter is not possible). Also in hashtags, if you write #BrandName®, the ® will be ignored. That's OK - no need there. Similarly, in press release headlines that are passed to news sites, you'd better not put the ®, because many times news writers cut it out or it may show up as a weird character in some systems. An analysis of press feeds showed that 80-90% of media outlets remove trademark symbols when they republish a press release. So, don't insist on stuffing them everywhere - they may end up “garbage” (e.g. it sometimes happens in copy-paste that ® appears as â or ? due to encoding). Better put an asterisked footnote at the end of the type text that mentions trademarks as mentioned. Journalists usually keep this footnote. This is cleaner.
**7. Adjustment by geographic market: If you are a designer or marketer for an international brand, be aware of any peculiarities: as mentioned above, in China must to print “Registered” or ®, in Japan it is also customary to print “®登録商標”. In the Arab world you might see the ® put before the word (due to RTL reading). These logistics are known to the local legal people - you work with them to make sure the packaging, UI etc. complies. You may need to produce different versions of the logo for different markets (e.g. with ™ in countries where registration is not complete). Make a table and organize your files accordingly. Brand managers should maintain a list of countries where the trademark is registered and by when, to let the creative department know when they can start using the ® in each territory.
**8. Do not be afraid to not use the symbol where it actually harms the design. For example, if you have a very small logo on a product where the engraving is tiny (e.g. jewelry), adding the ® can make it unnoticeable or unreadable. Laws (such as China's) give an exception in such cases - you can instead put the ® on the label or packaging instead of on the product. The aesthetics and functionality of the product should not be sacrificed if there is an alternative to otherwise declare the registration. Example: Luxury watches do not engrave ® on the dial, but on the accompanying documents there is. If you are a designer creating a logo for a product (e.g. engraved metal), it may be best not to incorporate the ® in the design for the product but only on the packaging. This decision is usually made with the legal department, but you as the designer can argue that “it won't fit here without doing harm - let's put it elsewhere”.
**9. Communicate internally the value of the trademark. Marketers often focus on the brand story, the visuals, and leave the legal stuff to the lawyers. But the case of Velcro etc. shows that a interoperable approach. Brand strategists should work with legal experts to decide how to deal with the situation where the brand name becomes widely used. Sometimes, the right campaign (like the “Band-Aid brand”) can make a difference without alienating. Another example: Google until recently every so often published blog posts like “10 Things You Didn't Know - including that Google is a trademark, use it properly” - a friendly way to remind people that “Google®” is a brand. These gentle PR actions are the responsibility of the branding team. Legal alone would probably just send cease & desist letters to dictionaries. The branding team can find creative ways. So make a plan: if see that your brand name starts to be used in general, consider a small awareness campaign (e.g. blog post, video, social content) to reposition it as a brand.
**10. Finally: respect other people's trademarks as you would want them to respect yours. This means, in partnerships or conference presentations, when mentioning partners or other products, use ™/® correctly for their own names. It shows professionalism and corporate respect. E.g. if you're Company A and you do a press release that says “...powered by Microsoft Azure® cloud”, you'll earn goodwill points from Microsoft. Also, avoid in your own copy making the mistakes you are trying to prevent others from making with your own brands. Don't use other people's names generically (e.g. don't say “can google’ formally - write ”search Google®“). This attention to detail reflected how others will treat you and how they will treat you.
Summarizing the instructions: Incorporate the ® symbol cleverly, unobtrusively but in the right places, ensure aesthetic balance, educate both the public and colleagues in its correct use, and adapt as appropriate (market, media). This symbol is a small but important tool in the arsenal of brand management - used correctly, it offers protection and value, used incorrectly or excessively, it can go from indifferent to annoying. The art is to find that “happy medium” where it fulfills its purpose without diminishing your audience's experience
