Trademark: 20th Century Fox

First Used: 1994

First Registered: 1995

Current Owner: FOX MEDIA LLC (20th Century Studios) [1]

Trademark Type: non-traditional trademark; motion mark

Primarily Associated With: motion picture films and pre-recorded videodiscs featuring entertainment [2], and production and distribution of motion picture films and pre-recorded videodiscs [3]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [4]:

The last 100 years of movie history has been dominated by the “Big Six” Hollywood film studios: Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures (Columbia Pictures), and 20th Century Fox.

The 20th Century Fox studio was formed in 1935 through the merger of two film companies with very different histories. Fox Film Corporation had been founded by pioneering theater owner William Fox in 1915 and grew into a major producer, distributor, and theater operator, while also becoming an early leader in sound-on-film technology through Fox Movietone. Twentieth Century Pictures was much newer. Founded in 1933 by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck, the independent production company quickly found success before merging with the financially struggling Fox Film Corporation just two years later. The combined company became Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with Zanuck overseeing production.

20th Century Fox soon became one of the dominant studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age, producing films ranging from The Grapes of Wrath and Miracle on 34th Street to The Sound of Music. In later decades, its films and franchises included Star Wars, Alien, Die Hard, Home Alone, Titanic, X-Men, Ice Age, Avatar, and Deadpool.

The familiar 20th Century Fox monument logo was actually first created for Twentieth Century Pictures prior to the merger. The original design was credited to special-effects artist and matte painter Emil Kosa Jr. and featured the company name stacked in enormous three-dimensional letters atop an Art Deco-style pedestal, surrounded by sweeping searchlights. After the merger, the design was adapted for the newly formed Twentieth Century-Fox. The basic concept remained consistent over the ensuing decades, but the studio periodically updated the artwork to accommodate new filmmaking technology. In 1953, artist Rocky Longo redesigned the logo for the wider CinemaScope format, including a slightly tilted “0” in “20th” to better fit the new proportions. The “0” was straightened again in the early 1980s, while other versions changed the coloring, lighting, background, and details of the monument without abandoning its basic form.

The biggest change came in 1994, when the traditional painted version was replaced with a fully computer-generated sequence (now captured in the 20th Century Fox motion mark!). Produced under the direction of Kevin Burns, the new introduction turned the familiar monument into a much more cinematic environment. The camera moves around and above the structure as searchlights sweep through the sky, revealing a detailed landscape surrounding the monument. Later versions improved the textures, lighting, and computer animation, including a major digital update around 2009–2010, but retained essentially the same movement and overall composition.

One thing to note: 20th Century Fox was purchased by Disney in 2019 and has since rebranded to 20th Century Studios. These trademark registrations were recently renewed in 2025, giving both another 10-year renewal term. The next renewal windows are October 17, 2034 – October 17, 2035, so it may be a while before we see what happens next for these historic motion mark registrations!