What ™︎ means
™︎ stands for trademark. It tells people you claim a word, logo or slogan as your brand for certain goods. Unlike ®︎, you can use ™︎ without registering anything: in the US, trademark rights can come from actually using a mark in business, and ™︎ simply announces your claim. ℠ (service mark) does the same for services, such as a restaurant or consulting name.
™︎ does not create protection on its own or prove ownership. How strong your rights are depends on real use, how distinctive the mark is and whether someone else used it first. Registering the mark gives broader rights, and only then may you switch to ®︎. This is general information, not legal advice.
How to use ™︎ correctly
Place ™︎ right after the mark, usually raised: Acme™︎. Style guides typically use it on the first or most prominent mention and leave it off later in the same text. Use it only on names you really claim as a brand, not on ordinary words.
The single character ™︎ works better than typing T and M and formatting them as superscript: it stays together, keeps its look when pasted into another app and is recognized as one symbol. If you only want the look of raised letters, ᵀᴹ also exist as separate characters.
How to type the TM symbol
Windows: hold Alt and type 0153 on the number pad. Mac: Option + 2. Word: type (tm) and AutoCorrect turns it into ™︎, or press Ctrl + Alt + T. Google Docs: (tm) also becomes ™︎ automatically.
iPhone: ™︎ is in the Symbols section of the emoji keyboard, or create a text replacement such as "tmm" for ™︎. Android: Gboard has ™︎ on the =\< symbols page. HTML: ™. LaTeX: \texttrademark. For registered marks and copyright notices, see the registered trademark symbol and copyright symbol pages.