Copyright symbol: copy © and ℗
Click a symbol to copy it. Below that, add the year and the owner to get a copyright notice you can paste into your site footer or onto your product photos.
Verified October 1, 2026
©
Copyright symbol
Photos, product descriptions, designs, your website. No registration needed.
U+00A9 · ©
℗
Sound recording copyright symbol
Published sound recordings only: music, a podcast, an audiobook.
U+2117 · ℗
Write your copyright notice
The year the work first went public, for example the year the photo went on your store.
Your notice
© 2026 Your company
The symbol, the year the work was first published, and the owner: the three parts US law asks for.
Type the owner's name to finish it.
How to type each symbol
Your device is marked when this page can tell which one it is.
Mac
- ©
- Option + G
- ℗
- Character Viewer: Control + Command + Space, search “sound recording”
Windows
- ©
- Alt + 0169 on the number pad
- ℗
- Copy it from this page
Microsoft Word for Windows
- ©
- Type 00A9, then Alt + X
- ℗
- Type 2117, then Alt + X
Google Docs
- ©
- Insert, Symbols, Special characters, search 00A9
- ℗
- Insert, Symbols, Special characters, search 2117
iPhone and iPad
- ©
- Set a text replacement
- ℗
- Set a text replacement
Android
- ©
- Copy it from this page
- ℗
- Copy it from this page
Linux (GNOME)
- ©
- Ctrl + Shift + U, a9, Enter
- ℗
- Ctrl + Shift + U, 2117, Enter
HTML
- ©
- ©
- ℗
- ℗
How to write a copyright notice
A US copyright notice has three parts: the symbol ©, the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr."; the year the work was first published; and the name of the owner.3 Nothing else is required.
The symbol
©, the word Copyright, or Copr.
The year
When the work was first published
The owner
Your name or your company's
© 2026 Ember & Wick: the symbol, the year and the owner on one line.
You need no permission and no registration to use it.4 The owner is whoever made the work, so a freelance photographer who shot your product photos owns them unless a signed agreement moved them to you. If a freelancer shot yours, the work for hire agreement generator writes that agreement, and your company's name can then go in the notice.
The ℗ is the one exception to the form. A published sound recording carries ℗, the year and the owner, and there is no word version of it.3 It covers the recording only, so an album can carry both: ℗ for the recording, © for the songs and the artwork.
What the © does for you
A notice has been optional in the US for work published since March 1, 1989.4 It still does two things. It tells anyone who sees the work that copyright is claimed, and by whom. And it takes away an excuse: when a proper notice was on the copy the infringer saw, a court generally gives no weight to a claim that the infringement was innocent when it sets the damages.3
The © is not a registration. Before you can sue over a US work, the Copyright Office has to register it, and statutory damages and attorney's fees are only on the table if the registration came before the infringement or within three months of publication.5 How to register your product photos covers the group filing that registers a whole shoot in one application.
When a copycat crops off your notice
A notice on a product photo is copyright management information, and federal law makes removing it a separate violation. A seller who removes your © from an image on purpose, knowing or having reasonable grounds to know that it will help a copy along or hide it, can owe statutory damages of $2,500 to $25,000 for each removal, on top of whatever the copying itself costs them.6 The removal has to be intentional, so a notice lost by accident is not a violation.
That is a reason to put the notice in the image file or in a corner of the photo, not only in your footer. When a copy turns up anyway, the DMCA takedown notice generator writes the notice for the marketplace that hosts it, and copyright or trademark says which right to file under.
How the notice builder works
The builder writes the three parts and checks one of them. It uses © (or the word Copyright, if you pick that style) for everything except a sound recording, which gets ℗ with no word version. It takes a year from 1900 to this year and asks you to fix anything else, because the year of first publication cannot be in the future. It does not check who owns the work: that depends on who made it and what they signed.
It covers the US rules only. Everything runs in your browser, and what you type is not sent anywhere.
A worked example
A candle brand, Ember & Wick, put its first product photos on its Shopify store in 2024 and shot a new range this year. The 2024 photos get "© 2024 Ember & Wick" and the new ones "© 2026 Ember & Wick", because each photo's year is the year it was first published. The photographer signed a work for hire agreement before the shoot, so the company, not the photographer, is the owner in both.
The candle names are a different question. A name is a trademark, and it gets ™ or ®, never ©. The trademark symbol tool copies those and says which one the brand may use.
Sources and dates
Every source below was read October 1, 2026.
- 1. Character codes. The Unicode Character Database for U+00A9 COPYRIGHT SIGN and U+2117 SOUND RECORDING COPYRIGHT, and the HTML named character list for © and ℗. ↩
- 2. Keyboard shortcuts. Microsoft's Windows keyboard tips for Alt + 0169; Microsoft's Word shortcuts for Alt + X; Option + G and Shift + Option + G as typed by Knockoff on a Mac with the US layout, since no Apple page lists them; Apple's Mac shortcuts for the Character Viewer and Apple's iPhone guide for text replacement; Google Docs Editors Help for special characters; and GNOME Help for Ctrl + Shift + U. ↩
- 3. The notice statutes. 17 U.S.C. 401 for the form of the © notice and the innocent infringement rule, and 17 U.S.C. 402 for the ℗ notice on sound recordings. ↩
- 4. The Copyright Office on notice. Circular 3, Copyright Notice, for notice being optional for work published on or after March 1, 1989, for using the symbol without permission or registration, and for what a notice tells a reader. ↩
- 5. Registration before suit. 17 U.S.C. 411(a) and 17 U.S.C. 412. ↩
- 6. Removing a notice. 17 U.S.C. 1202(b) and (c) for removing copyright management information, which includes the information in a copyright notice, and 17 U.S.C. 1203(c)(3)(B) for $2,500 to $25,000 per violation. ↩
Knockoff is not a law firm and this is general information, not legal advice.
Questions about the copyright symbol
Do I need to register to use the copyright symbol?
+
No. Copyright exists from the moment you create the work, and anyone who owns the copyright may put © on it. Registration with the US Copyright Office is a separate step, and it is what you need before you can sue.
What is the correct format for a copyright notice?
+
The symbol ©, the year the work was first published, and the owner's name, as in © 2026 Ember & Wick. The word Copyright or the abbreviation Copr. can stand in for the symbol.
Is a copyright notice required?
+
Not for work published on or after March 1, 1989. It is still worth adding, because a proper notice stops an infringer from claiming they did not know the work was protected to get damages reduced.
How do I type the copyright symbol on a Mac?
+
Option + G types © on the standard US keyboard layout. Shift + Option + G types a different character, ˝. There is no default key for ℗; open the Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space and search for sound recording.
How do I type the copyright symbol on Windows?
+
Hold Alt and type 0169 on the number pad, with Num Lock on. The number row above the letters does not work for this. In Microsoft Word, type 00A9 and press Alt + X.
What is the ℗ symbol?
+
The sound recording copyright symbol. It goes on published recordings of music or other audio, with the year and the owner, and it covers the recording itself. The song, the lyrics and the artwork take ©.
Should I put a copyright notice on my product photos?
+
Yes, where it fits. A notice on the image or beside it tells anyone who copies the photo who owns it, and a copier who strips that notice off to hide the copy can owe damages for the removal on top of the copying.
A notice says the photos are yours. Knockoff finds the stores and marketplace listings using them and files a takedown on each confirmed copy. Scan your store for stolen photos.