A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in the United States and several other countries to identify a service rather than a product .
8-402: When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used (the same symbol is used to mark registered trademarks). Before it is registered, it is common practice (with some legal standing) to use the service mark symbol ℠ (a superscript SM). A service mark differs from a trademark in that the mark is used on the advertising of
16-447: A company, product or service. Unregistered trademarks can instead be marked with the trademark symbol , ™ , while unregistered service marks are marked with the service mark symbol , ℠ . The proper manner to display these symbols is immediately following the mark; the symbol is commonly in superscript style, but that is not legally required. In many jurisdictions, only registered trademarks confer easily defended legal rights. In
24-416: A different standard of use in order to count as a use in commerce, which is necessary to complete registration and to stop infringement by competitors. A trademark normally needs to be used on or directly in association with the sale of goods, such as on a store display. As services are not defined by a concrete product, use of a service mark on the uniforms or vehicles of service providers or in advertisements
32-411: Is instead accepted as a use in commerce. However, like trademarks, service marks must pass a test of distinctiveness for it to be qualified as a service mark. For example, Thrifty, Inc. attempted to submit a service mark application that described aspects of their business (uniforms, buildings, certain vehicles) as "being blue". The application was rejected for not being specific enough, and the rejection
40-512: The US, the registered trademark symbol was originally introduced in the Trademark Act of 1946 . Because the ® symbol is not commonly available on typewriters (or ASCII ), it was common to approximate it with the characters (R) (or (r) ). An example of a legal equivalent is the phrase Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office , which may be abbreviated to Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off. in
48-493: The service deals with communications, it is possible to use a service mark consisting of a sound (a sound trademark ) in the process of delivering the service. This has been done in the case of AT&T , which uses a tone sound followed by a woman speaking the company's name to identify its long-distance service; MGM , which uses the sound of a tiger 's roar; and RKO Pictures , which used a Morse code signal for their motion pictures. Under United States law, service marks have
56-425: The service rather than on the packaging or delivery of the service, since there is generally no "package" to place the mark on, which is the practice for trademarks. For example, a private carrier can paint its service mark on its vehicles, such as on planes or buses. Personal service providers can place their service marks on their delivery vehicles, such as on the trucks of plumbers or on moving vans . However, if
64-467: Was upheld on appeal. This typography -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Registered trademark symbol The registered trademark symbol , ® , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing
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