Copyright symbol (©) in HTML
The copyright sign marks a claim of copyright. Its named reference is © and its code point is U+00A9, and it is one of the entities the reference tool pins for quick access.
At a glance
- Character
- ©
- Named entity
- ©
- Decimal reference
- ©
- Hex reference
- ©
- Unicode code point
- U+00A9
- Unicode name
- COPYRIGHT SIGN
- In the entity reference
- Symbols, and pinned in quick access
In detail
A full notice is three parts: the symbol, a year, and the name of the rights holder. The year is conventionally the year of first publication, and a range covering first publication to the present is the usual form for a site that is still being updated. A footer that renders only the current year from the clock loses the earlier date, which is the one that establishes how long the claim has run.
The symbol is not what creates the right. Under the Berne Convention protection is automatic on creation in the member states, so a work without a notice is still protected. What the notice does is practical: it names the holder, it dates the work, and it makes an innocent infringement defence harder to run. That is a reason to include it, not a reason to think it is doing the legal heavy lifting.
Writing (c) in brackets is a typewriter workaround and it is not the same character. Some jurisdictions have historically been particular about the form of a notice, search will not match the two forms against each other, and a screen reader announces the bracketed version as open bracket c close bracket rather than as copyright.
There is a separate symbol for sound recordings, the phonogram sign at U+2117, which looks like a P in the same circle. It has no named entity and it is not in the entity reference tool's list, so it has to be written as a numeric reference. Using the copyright sign where the phonogram sign belongs is a common slip in music metadata.
Examples
<footer>
<p>© 2019–2026 ToolBox. All rights reserved.</p>
</footer><p>℗ 2024 Example Records</p>
<p>℗ 2024 Example Records</p>Both numeric forms produce U+2117. There is no &phono; or similar.
Things that catch people out
- Rendering only the current year with a date function silently rewrites your notice every January and drops the publication year.
- The bracketed (c) is not a fallback for the symbol on a UTF-8 page. Every browser in use renders U+00A9 correctly.
- All rights reserved is a legacy formula from a treaty that no longer requires it. It is harmless but it adds nothing, so do not treat its absence as a defect.
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152 entities across 9 categories
Commonly Used
→Arrows(13)
±Math(35)
$Currency(8)
…Punctuation(21)
©Symbols(24)
πGreek(30)
½Fractions(6)
●Geometric(7)
æLatin Special(8)
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Tools for this
- HTML Entity Reference Free online HTML entity reference - search and copy HTML entities with live preview
- HTML Entity Encoder Free online HTML entity encoder - encode or decode HTML entities to prevent XSS and display issues