Trademarks

We rely on the trustworthiness of Morningstar’s name to help us stand out in a crowded marketplace. Trademarks and service marks—or simply, “marks”—reinforce our brand reputation and bolsters clients’ confidence in choosing our products and services over our competitors. By reserving Morningstar’s legal rights to a specific word, phrase, symbol, or design, these marks also protect our brands and related assets from misappropriation by others.

Our brand architecture strategy is designed to concentrate our brand equity—which is the value derived from perceptions and experiences—in our master brand and the family brands. We strengthen the associations we want our core brands to possess through the strategy of endorsing products, features, and supporting elements. Marks are critically important for protecting our brands, but we do not use them to create brand equity beyond asserting that we have valuable intellectual property.

Trademark and Service Mark Symbols

A trademark helps identify and distinguish the goods or services of one party from those of another. In the United States, Morningstar uses three different symbols to designate the legal status of a mark: trademark, service mark, and registered trademark.

A trademark, or ™ designator, is used to claim trademark rights in the name of a product or tangible good until it’s formally registered with a government.

A service mark, or ℠ designator, is used to claim service mark rights in the name of a service, including a service offered over the web, until it’s formally registered with a government.

The registered trademark, or ® designator, indicates that a product or service name has been formally registered with the applicable government. Trademark registrations are usually done on a country-by-country basis.

Note that most countries outside of the U.S. ignore the distinction between trademarks and service marks and just use the ™ designator for all unregistered marks.

For country-specific use cases, see Registered Trademarks.

Brand Assets and Marks

Our core brand assets include the Morningstar name, the logotype and lockups, and the family brand names, as well as our signature assets, like our Moat Ratings. Our regulated entity names and some offering names may also be treated as brand assets.

We distinguish between our use of Morningstar brand assets and their use by others, including partners, licensees, and media. See Using the Marks for guidelines for these two user groups.

Morningstar name, logotype, and lockups

Except in limited instances, the Morningstar brand name is a separate mark that is distinct from the names of products, features, and supporting elements. In the United States and most other jurisdictions in which Morningstar does business, the Morningstar brand name is a registered trademark, and this designation is important for us to maintain.

Similarly, our logotype is typically a registered mark and the anchor of our visual identity, and it forms a part of our lockups, which are used for family brands only.

Family brand names

Our family brands—Morningstar Credit, Morningstar Data+Analytics, Morningstar Indexes, Morningstar Retirement, and Morningstar Wealth—are key parts of our portfolio, and we treat them as important assets in which to build unique brand equity, in addition to their broader roles in increasing brand awareness. The Morningstar name itself is the way we protect family brands in-market. It is not our intent to rely on separate marks to protect family brand names.

Note that the family brands are not legal entities, and they should never be used instead of legal entities in any documentation that supports a legal process, like contracts, service agreements, or partnership agreements.

Regulated entity names

Across jurisdictions where we operate, there may be differences in how we refer to regulated entities in sales and marketing materials and legal disclosures or other legal documentation. Please contact Legal regarding the use of regulated entity names.

Offerings and signature assets

In some cases, we have registered the names of certain products and services in the United States and other jurisdictions as trademarks. For a current list, see Registered Trademarks.

Using the Marks

In Morningstar-owned touchpoints

Within Morningstar-owned touchpoints, like our websites and our marketing and sales materials, we no longer include an ® designator in text (e.g., Morningstar®) or as part of the Morningstar logotype, and we do not use an ℠ at the end of our lockups.

While a select few of our offerings and supporting elements are approved by the Brand team to continue to use Morningstar in their name, this is in text only and does not include an ®, ™, ℠, or any other designator. Examples include Morningstar Investor, Morningstar Office, Morningstar Direct, and Morningstar Brand System.

All uses of this logotype must be accompanied by legal attribution text, which varies by country and jurisdiction. Contact the Legal team for specific recommendations.

In third-party context

On first use, all third parties are required to include:

• an ® designator in text (e.g., Morningstar®) and as part of the Morningstar logotype but not within family brand and other approved names. In those jurisdictions in which Morningstar has not registered the mark in question, you must use either a ™ designator or an ℠ designator, depending on the country.

• an ℠ or ™ at the end of lockups and family brand names. The choice depends on the country in which the family brand is being used. Use an ℠ designator in the U.S. and Japan, and a ™ designator in all other countries.

• an ®, ℠, or ™ as appropriate at the end of registered product names.

When using the logotype, third parties must ensure the legibility of the registered trademark symbol. For guidance, see Logotype.

For the full list of registered trademarks and how to represent them in each of our jurisdictions, see Registered Trademarks.

Please contact the Brand team with questions on which marks to use. Or contact Legal with any questions about the status or proper use of registered trademarks, as well as the correct representation of regulated entities in specific contexts or jurisdictions.

Copyright Notice and Disclaimers

Copyright Notice

Any published piece that Morningstar produces should have the appropriate copyright information included with it. The required elements of a copyright notice are the copyright symbol, the year, the name of the entity, and the reservation of rights language. Please contact Legal with any questions about the appropriate copyright notice.

Disclaimers

In addition to the appropriate copyright information included with all published pieces, many Morningstar products and services also require specific disclaimer language, which may or may not be part of the copyright notice. Please contact Legal with any questions about appropriate disclaimers and their representation in published pieces.