The service mark

Service mark

A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in some countries, notably the United States, to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used...

 symbol, designated by ℠ (the letters SM written in superscript style), is a symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

 commonly used in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to provide notice that the preceding mark is a service mark

Service mark

A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in some countries, notably the United States, to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used...

. This symbol has some legal force, and is typically used for service marks not yet registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; registered service marks are instead marked with the same symbol used for registered trademarks, the registered trademark symbol

Registered trademark symbol

The registered trademark symbol, designated by ® , is a symbol used to provide notice that the preceding mark is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office...

 ®. The proper manner to display the symbol is immediately following the mark in superscript style.

The character is mapped in Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

 as . Unlike the similar trademark symbol

Trademark symbol

The trademark symbol, designated by ™ , is a symbol used to provide notice that the preceding mark is a trademark. Use of this symbol does not mean that the trademark has been registered. Registered trademarks are indicated using the Registered trademark symbol...

, there is no simple built-in way to type the service mark symbol on Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 or Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 systems though it is easily created on Linux systems with the key combination "Compose, s, m".

Related symbols

• The registered trademark symbol
  Registered trademark symbol
  The registered trademark symbol, designated by ® , is a symbol used to provide notice that the preceding mark is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office...
  
   ®, used for registered service marks.
• The similar trademark symbol
  Trademark symbol
  The trademark symbol, designated by ™ , is a symbol used to provide notice that the preceding mark is a trademark. Use of this symbol does not mean that the trademark has been registered. Registered trademarks are indicated using the Registered trademark symbol...
  
  ,™, featuring the letters TM instead of SM.