Unique said:
Microsoft actually had a whole page of how they want to be identified for certain products.
You don't actually have to follow their instructions re: where to put copyright or other symbols, unless you work for them, or if you work for someone else and your supervisor insists that those symbols need to be there (e.g. if you work for an advertising firm that's been hired by Nike). Speaking of copyright, it is different than trademark in that you don't have the right to use someone's copyrighted work AT ALL without their permission, unless you fall into one of the exceptions (like if you're writing a term paper or a book review, you can quote parts of someone else's book). So the question of when/where to put the (C) symbol is pretty much a non-issue, since apart from the few exceptions, you can't use something copyrighted in your own work at all without the copyright holder's permission.
With trademark, however, you don't need permission: you can write about Jello, Jack Daniels, Nike, etc. all you want--the only thing you can't do is use one of those trademarked names (or symbols, like Nike's swoosh) on a product or service that you provide. Like, you can't home-brew your own whiskey and call it Jack Daniels. But you can have a character drink Jack Daniels on every page of your story, if you want to, without needing permission and without having to put (R) or (TM) after the name. Just FYI, the difference between (TM) and (R) is that (R) can only be used if the company has gone through the time and expense of registering their trademark with the federal government, while (TM) creates legal protection before the company has done that (some companies never bother to register it federally). Federal registration (R) protects the product nationwide, while (TM) might or might not protect it nationwide--(TM) protection has more "holes" in it than federal protection does.
However, although you don't have to use those symbols unless you're doing work for the company, the company that has the trademark does have to put (TM) or (R) next to the word/phrase or logo. The reason the company has to put the (TM) or (R) there is because if it doesn't, it could lose legal protection (i.e. it could lose its trademark, and if that happened, other companies would have the right to use that word/phrase or logo on their own products). So if you're working for the company as an employee or contractor, or if you're working for someone who's working for the company, you have to use the (TM) or (R). Otherwise, you don't; lots of people think you do, but keep your eyes open: look at newspaper articles and books where people are described using something (drinking Coke or Jack Daniels, driving a Ferrari, whatever)--you will never see, at least not in a professional publication (Wall Street Journal, book by a major publishing house, etc.), a (TM) or (R) symbol in the text, unless it's there for ironic purposes (e.g. in an article poking fun at a company that is involved in some ridiculous legal battle).
Copyright is a little different. Assuming we're talking about something that's already copyrighted, you don't have to put the (C) symbol on the copyrighted thing even if you work for the company that has the copyright, because an artist, company, or other copyright holder cannot lose its copyright no matter what you do. A company could lose its trademark if it lets it become generic (e.g., if everyone starts calling fruit-flavored gelatin Jello, there could come a point where Jello would no longer be the only company with the legal right to use the word "Jello" on its products). But there is no way to lose your copyright these days, not since we (the US) signed the Berne Convention. Copyright exists whether you put the (c) symbol on or not. The reason people still use the (c) symbol is because it serves two purposes: (1) it warns eejits who might steal it that it's copyrighted and (2) it increases the $$ damages that the copyright holder could win in court if someone stole it.
Unique said:
Coke, Nike, JC Penney, etc. have (c) at the bottom of the webpage. Nike says their 'swoosh'(swish)(whatever) logo that little ~ mark is trademarked....but is the (c) at the bottom of the page for the information on that page? (Which is what I thought) Or does it apply to their whole nine yards?
The (c) at the bottom of the page is for the web page. The only time you, a writer, would have to mention someone else's copyright is if you were using an excerpt from something of theirs within your own work (and to use it in your own work, either you would need their permission or you would have to fall into one of the few exceptions), and then in a footnote or somewhere like that you would say that that excerpt was "Copyright 2004 Nike Corp." or whoever. You would certainly never use it in the actual text of your article/story.
Unique said:
When you are marketing your own corporate identity, it is unusual - nay, almost unheard of for the small business owner to have the big advertising budgets of Coke (?), Nike (?), or JC Penney (?).
(1) All of those are trademarked (not copyrighted--it's not possible to copyright a single word or a very short phrase), so you can mention them to your heart's content without getting the company's permission.
(2) All of those are registered trademarks, so the company will use the (R) symbol with them (not the (TM)), but YOU do not need to include the (R) symbol.