® or ™: Which Symbol May You Use, and When?

The R in a circle, the small ™, sometimes a ©. These symbols appear next to brands and logos everywhere, and hardly anyone knows exactly when which one is allowed. The short answer first: you may only use the ® if your trademark is actually registered. You may use the ™ almost always, but in Europe it carries no protective effect of its own. Confuse the two and, in the worst case, you risk a cease-and-desist letter. I analysed around 3 million marks in the EU register, and the numbers show why the order matters.

What the ® means

The ® stands for "registered", meaning a registered trademark. It signals that a sign is entered in a trademark office's register and enjoys trademark protection. In Europe three offices come into play: the DPMA for Germany, the EUIPO for the whole EU, and WIPO for internationally registered marks. Only once your mark is actually registered there does the ® belong behind it.

The point is that this does not depend on a feeling but on an entry. Either your mark is in the register, then you may use the ®. Or it is not yet in there, then you may not.

When you may use the ®

The decisive factor is timing. A trademark goes through two phases: first the application, then the registration. At the EUIPO several months often lie between the two, during which the office examines the mark and third parties can oppose it. You may use the ® only from registration onward, not already from the application.

Using the ® while the mark is merely applied for claims a protection that does not yet exist. And that state is more common than you might think. Whether your mark is already registered or still under examination is something you can see in the EU trademark register within seconds.

How many marks may actually use the ®?

I analysed the status of every mark in the EU register. Of around 3 million entries, only 56.9 percent are actually registered. Almost one in six marks, about 18 percent, is only applied for or still under examination and may therefore not carry a ® yet. On top of that come entries that were refused (3.4 percent) or that the applicant withdrew (4.6 percent). They never received a ®.

Status in the register	Share	® allowed?
registered	56.9 %	yes
applied for or under examination	about 18 %	no, ™ only
refused	3.4 %	no
withdrawn	4.6 %	no

For you this means one thing above all: before you put a ® on your name, make sure your mark really belongs to the registered ones and is not still in the application phase.

What the ™ means, and why it does little in Europe

The ™ comes from the Anglo-American world. It signals that someone claims a sign as a trademark, but says nothing about whether it is registered. In the United States the ™ has a certain function, because unregistered marks can gain rights there through use.

In Germany and most of the EU it is different. Here the ™ has no protective effect of its own. You may use it, but it creates no additional protection. The ™ is mainly useful in the transition period. Your mark is applied for but not yet registered. Then the ™ lets you show that you claim the sign as a trademark, without using the ® to claim a protection you do not yet have.

Why a false ® can get expensive

Using the ® without a registration is not just inaccurate, it is a risk. A ® signals registered protection. If that is missing, the statement is misleading, and misleading statements are open to challenge under unfair-competition rules. In practice that means competitors or rights holders can send a cease-and-desist letter, with costs and a demand to stop. That holds even if you did not mean any harm.

This is not an assessment of your individual case, it is the general market situation. If you want to be safe, use the ® only from registration onward and, until then, at most the ™.

And the ©?

A quick word on the ©, because it is often named in the same breath as ® and ™. The © stands for copyright and has nothing to do with trademarks. It refers to works such as text, images or music, not to brand names. In Germany copyright arises automatically with the work, so a © is neither required nor legally meaningful for it.

The right order

Put it all together and a simple order emerges:

1. Check whether your desired name is already taken in the register or confusingly close to an existing mark.
2. Apply for the trademark. In this phase you can use the ™.
3. Only once the mark is registered do you use the ®. What happens after that is covered in trademark registered, what next.

The most expensive mistake is to use a symbol too early or wrongly while overlooking that the name may not have been free in the first place. What the registration itself costs is covered in EU trademark fees 2026.

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Conclusion

The rule is simple, even if it is often ignored. The ® belongs only on registered marks, the ™ is a claim signal with no protective effect of its own, and the © concerns entirely different works. Keep the order and you save yourself trouble. And before any symbol goes behind your name at all, it is worth checking the register whether the name is free.