Registered sign (®) in HTML
The registered sign marks a trade mark that has been formally registered. Its named reference is ® and its code point is U+00AE.
At a glance
- Character
- ®
- Named entity
- ®
- Decimal reference
- ®
- Hex reference
- ®
- Unicode code point
- U+00AE
- Unicode name
- REGISTERED SIGN
- In the entity reference
- Symbols, and pinned in quick access
In detail
This symbol makes a specific factual claim: that the mark it follows is registered with a trade mark office, in a territory where the page is being read. It is not decoration and it is not interchangeable with the trademark symbol. Applying it to a mark that is merely in use, or that is registered somewhere else entirely, is a misstatement that several jurisdictions treat as an offence.
That territorial detail catches international sites. A mark registered in one country and unregistered in another should not carry the symbol on pages served to the second, which is why large brands often maintain a separate legal notice line rather than putting the symbol inline everywhere. If you localise your content, the symbol is part of what you localise.
Typographically it is usually set smaller and raised, but it is a full sized character in the font and superscripting it with the sup element compounds that. Reducing font size and nudging vertical alignment in CSS gives more control, and the character should be marked so assistive technology can still announce it, because it is meaningful content rather than an icon.
Convention is to use the symbol on the first or most prominent occurrence of a mark on a page rather than on every instance. Repeating it in every sentence is legally unnecessary and makes body text unreadable, which is why style guides for technical documentation generally restrict it to the first mention plus a trademark attribution block.
Examples
<p>ExampleSoft® is a registered trade mark. ExampleSoft integrates
with the rest of the suite without further configuration.</p>.mark {
font-size: 0.7em;
vertical-align: 0.35em;
line-height: 1;
}Wrap the character in a span with this class instead of using sup, which also changes the semantics.
Things that catch people out
- Using it on an unregistered mark is not a harmless flourish. The trademark symbol is the correct mark for a claim that has not been registered.
- A registration that lapsed does not stop the symbol appearing in cached pages and PDFs. Removing it from the template is only part of the job.
- The character is easy to confuse with the copyright sign at small sizes, especially in condensed typefaces. Check at your smallest rendered size.
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Commonly Used
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$Currency(8)
…Punctuation(21)
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πGreek(30)
½Fractions(6)
●Geometric(7)
æLatin Special(8)
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Related HTML entities
All html entities →Trademark symbol (™) in HTML
The trade mark sign at U+2122, its entity and numeric forms, how it differs from the registered sign, and the service mark character that has no entity.
Copyright symbol (©) in HTML
The copyright sign at U+00A9 with its named, decimal and hex references, what a copyright notice actually does, and why (c) in brackets is not a substitute.
Micro sign (µ) in HTML
The micro sign at U+00B5 and the Greek small mu at U+03BC look identical and are different code points. Which one to use for units, and how to normalise them.
Check mark and cross mark characters in HTML
The tick and cross characters at U+2713, U+2714, U+2717 and U+2718, their numeric references, font coverage problems, and why colour alone is not enough.
Star symbols in HTML: filled and outlined
The black and white star characters, their numeric references, how to build an accessible star rating, and why half stars need clipping rather than a glyph.
Heart symbol in HTML: ♥ and U+2764
The black heart suit at U+2665 and the heavy black heart at U+2764, how variation selectors switch between text and emoji rendering, and which to use where.
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