Re: Differance between Trademark and Registered Mark?
A couple of years back, my company had some copyright/trademark/patent consultants in to do a course to our R&D team.
We were told this.
"TM" is "Trade Mark Pending" (somewhat like 'Patent Pending'). You have applied for a registered trade mark, but the application has not yet been processed. It's like telling people (please don't apply for this same trademark, as ours is in the queue already)
Once approved, you can change your "TM" to the (r) logo indiciating you know have a registered trade mark on that item.
You can actually take legal action for a "TM" because it provides evidence that you began the process of getting the registration. So disputes can be determined based on he time, and location when/where the registration occured.
Well that's what i was taught for what it's worth. I have since seen lots of companies just stick 'TM" on things without ever actually applying for registration.