Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Trademarks

I apologize if this has been discussed in the past, so please forgive my ignorance. The TM and circled-R superscript symbols are commonly used across a multitude of documentation. Why are they specifically advised against on Wikipedia? — TadgStirkland⁴⁰¹(Tadg^Talk-Email) 22:56, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

• "Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization practices, even if the trademark owner considers nonstandard formatting "official", as long as this is a style already in widespread use, rather than inventing a new one: (But see exception below under § Trademarks that begin with a lowercase letter.)
  • use: Time, Kiss, Asus, Sony Mobile. (Capitalize GEICO, IBM, as acronyms/initialisms.)
  • avoid: TIME, KISS, ASUS, SONY Mobile"

I'd like to propose to the community that this Wikipedia rule be changed. Capitalization of a brand name equally represents its identity. If, as in the example, ASUS is also in the full company name (ASUSTeK Computer Inc.), I don't see any reason to write it in lowercase. The situation is different if the capitalization is only in the logo (such as Sony, which is capitalized only in the logo).

In my opinion, this rule should be rewritten, especially considering the countless cases in which capitalization is used both by companies and by other Wikipedia pages about certain brands (which have not complied with this rule).

Let me know your opinion. Paranoid25 (talk) 10:13, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Support — This seems to be one of those arbitrary rules that seems to only be an issue here at Wikipedia. Trade magazines, newspapers, books and other media have no problem using letter-case established and used by the subject. I’m sure the original arguments ‘against’ are archived somewhere and someone might dredge those up — TadgStirkland⁴⁰¹(Tadg^Talk-Email) 21:02, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

The guideline already states that we follow the sources on this. So, when trade magazines, newspapers, books and other sources use the letter-case established and used by the subject, we should do so as well. But… there are numerous situations where these sources don’t. And when they don’t, neither should we. Blueboar (talk) 23:36, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

I just came across the article ifm group, which managed to get through AfC despite having the company name in all lowercase throughout the article. I've changed it to "Ifm" for now, but am not sure whether this should be "Ifm" or "IFM" and "group" or "Group", etc. Any input would be much appreciated. --Yodin^T 11:20, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) § (stylized in all caps). —Myceteae‍🍄‍🟫 (talk) 17:12, 4 August 2026 (UTC)