Where Do You Put Quotes When Using a Registered Trademark?

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Updated November 8, 2016
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Citing sources is an important part of writing correctly, as you must attribute secondary information to its proper origin. Therefore, read on to find out how to incorporate a trademark into a written work.

Using a Registered Trademark

When you use a registered trademark in your work, you actually do not use quotation marks at all. Still though, you must properly indicate that the information is a trademark and not a product of your own imagination, whether that is through symbols or capitalization. For a registered trademark, which the majority of trademarks are, you would use the ® symbol, which on a PC can be created by pressing "Alt" in conjunction with 0174.

However, there are also two other types of trademarks which you might come into contact with. For a trademark that is not currently registered, you would insert the ™ symbol, which is made by pressing "Alt" in conjunction with 0153. One more example that you could potentially have to use is the one for a service mark that is not currently registered. If that is the case, then you would simply add "SM" to the trademark.

If you are not sure which one of these three sections the particular trademark belongs to, you should contact the company in order to ensure that you are using the correct demarcation.

Capitalization

However, in certain types of scholarly writing, you are not required to note the trademark. The reason for this is because you would always capitalize the first letter of the trademarked name; therefore, it is considered repetitive to include the trademark symbol as well.

As you can see, there are not hard and fast rules about trademark use. You should consult with the person or institution for which you are writing in order to clarify the style of the material that they want.