All you need to “get” a TM trademark is to make and use it, and not be successfully challenged by someone with an older trademark.
But to get a circle-R registered trademark… check out http://www.uspto.gov
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
The PTO website will give you the fee schedule for registering a trademark.
The real costs come from trying to protect the mark. It’s up to the owner of the trademark to protect it. The government isn’t going to help you do it.
A real life ® experience: our trademark became a federally registered mark yesterday, 12-21-99. The application and the fee ($245.00) were sent 10-27-98. 14 months.
$245.00?..I thought it was more than that.
Congrats.
My website was shut down once, 3 years back because some guy claimed copyright infrigment on his trademark logo. Took me some time to find out that logos aren’t copyrighted [they are trademarked] and they don’t have a trademark for their logo. sigh