(tm) (r) (c)

pickarooney

What exactly is the difference in meaning between the Copyright, Trade Mark and Registered symbols?

Downtime

Trademark: A name, symbol, or other device identifying a product, officially registered and legally restricted to the use of the owner or manufacturer.
A registered trademark is a trademark the US Patent and Trademark Office has accepted and registered for a certain class of goods. e.g. Coca Cola

A copyright is to do with published work. e.g. photograph

pickarooney

So an (R) kind of includes the (TM), but with an extra seal of approval?

ambro25

TM

'TM' signifies that a mark/sign/logo used in the course trade is intended to be used as a 'trademark', i.e. to distinguish the goods/services with which it is associated from those of other providers.

It is not registered at the national Patent & Trademark Office, or an application has been filed but is pending.

Anyone can affix 'TM' to their goods/services. It does not prevent a third party from 'stealing' the mark/sign/logo by applying for its registration unbeknownst to the current user (but there may be problems down the line, obviously - mostly down to where and by whom can the eventually-registered 'stolen' mark be used, i.e. everywhere and by the 'thieving' party, but who cannot stop the original user to use it as a 'TM' in the original area of use).

R

'R' circled is as above, but the mark/sign/logo is a trademark registered at the national Patent & Trademark Office. Only the registered owner can affix 'R' to his goods/services.

So in the above 'stealing' example, the original deviser and user of a 'TM' whose mark was registered by someone else after the original user started using it, cannot affix the 'R' because he is not the owner of the registered mark. He must still use 'TM'.

C

'C' circled relates to copyright, and is intended as a notice that a copyright attaches to a document, so that any reproduction or use of the document is intended to subject to copyright law (i.e. ask author's permission first). Note that it is useless if used in isolation, without a date and a mention of the copyright owner (e.g. c - 2005 - ambro25).

pickarooney

Assuming the NPTO is American, does a patent with an R only apply to the US, or is there one such office per country?

ambro25

pickarooney wrote:

Assuming the NPTO is American, does a patent with an R only apply to the US, or is there one such office per country?

A bit of a mish-mash of terms and acronyms, here -

NPTO - do you mean National Patent & Trademark Office?

A Patent has no 'R', 'R' is for Registered trademarks. Mention of a patent is usually inscription of a product with 'Patent no. XXXXXX', or 'Pat Pend(ing)' if it's not been granted yet.

A US patent only applies to th US, same as an Irish patent only applies to (the Republic of-) Ireland.