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It is important to put your competitors on notice about your trademark filing. It's a common mistake for people not to display proper notice of registration, or notice of your unregistered trademark rights. But this is easy to correct and avoid whether your trademark is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, we'll determine the appropriate form of notice. There are three ways to give notice that a trademark is registered with the Patent and Trademark Office, you can use the registered trademark symbol, which is an R with a circle around it. Or you can use the legend registered US Patent and Trademark Office. And this can also be abbreviated. Now if the trademark holder fails to employ one of the above notices, each time a federally registered mark is used. It could hinder the prosecution of a trademark infringement action because the infringer could claim innocent infringement as a defense. This can reduce the damages owed to the trademark owner. Now how do you show notice of rights in unregistered trademarks? Remember, the registered symbol the R word the circle around it, or the legend registered US Patent and Trademark Office are the abbreviation should only be used on marks that are registered at the Patent and Trademark Office. The use of this notice on unregistered marks is a crime, punishable by fines and even imprisonment. Technically, providing notice of rights in unregistered marks is optional, but I highly recommend it. Notice of rights in an unregistered trademark is shown by using either TM or SM to denote whether you're selling goods or services and is usually placed above or to the right of the trademark. I hope this quick lesson has been helpful. Contact me to protect your company or product brand name, your partner in innovating genres V.