Registered Sign ®

The Registered Sign character (®) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference ®, the decimal numeric character reference ®, or the hexadecimal numeric reference ®. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+00AE in the Universal Character Set.

The registered sign (®) indicates that a trademark has been officially registered with a trademark authority. It provides stronger legal protection than the unregistered trademark symbol (™). Using the registered sign for an unregistered mark is illegal in many jurisdictions.

Symbol entities encompass a wide variety of special characters used in legal disclaimers, intellectual property notices, typographic ornaments, card suit indicators, and miscellaneous notation throughout web content. These characters appear in website footers for copyright notices, product pages for trademark symbols, academic papers for dagger footnote markers, and decorative or gaming contexts for card suits and stars.

When deciding how to encode the Registered Sign character in your HTML documents, the named entity ® is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form ® and hexadecimal form ® are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use the registered sign after brand names, product names, and slogans that have been officially registered as trademarks. It should only be used for marks that have completed the registration process. For unregistered marks, use the trademark symbol ™ instead.