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What is the difference
between ® and ™
?
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There is one exception:
if it can be shown that the reference is to registration
elsewhere than in the UK and that the trade mark is
in fact so registered for the goods and services in
question, use of R and/or Registered Trade Mark is
permitted before registration is obtained in the UK.
This is see s 95(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 and
also the decision of the European Court of Justice
of December 13 1990 in Pall Corp. v P J Dahlhausen
& Co.
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| So, the advice to
clients who have yet to obtain registration of their
mark in any country is: |
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Do not use ®
or Registered Trade Mark |
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You can use TM, as this is not
considered to indicate that the mark is registered |
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After registration, you can
then switch to R, or continue using TM, as this does
not lose you any rights. There are some countries –
the US is one of them – where failure to use R
once a mark is registered will lose the trademark owner
some of his rights, but this does not apply to the UK.
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